US stock exchanges posted strong gains on Monday. By the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones stood at 53,178 points, marking a rise of 1.3% from the previous day. Minutes before that, the broader S&P 500 was up 1.5% with approximately 7,601 points, while the technology-focused Nasdaq 100 reached around 28,777 points, up 1.8%.
Investors showed relief on Monday following President Donald Trump’s announcement regarding potential new talks with Iran, although the Iranian government immediately denied these negotiations. Furthermore, market participants gained new confidence in the promise of “Artificial Intelligence,” especially after Microsoft and Amazon surpassed expectations with their quarterly financial results last week.
Shifting to other markets, the European common currency weakened on Monday evening; one Euro exchanged for 1.1508 US Dollars, meaning a dollar was available for 0.8690 Euros.
Gold prices benefited from the market activity, with a fine ounce trading at $4,053 US Dollars in the evening-a gain of 0.3%. This equates to €113.22 per gram. In contrast, oil prices fell sharply. A barrel of North Sea Brent crude cost around $83.72 US Dollars late Monday evening (around 10 PM German time), which represented a reduction of 4.8% compared to the close of the previous trading day.
