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Stock market live Monday: Dow rises 357, airline stocks jump, transports confirming comeback?

This is CNBC's markets live blog that will be updated throughout the day. 

The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average built on last week's strong performance, rising for a seventh straight day. The weakness in big technology shares weighed on the S&P 500, however, and its slight gain was not enough to reclaim its record high from February. Investors weighed President Donald Trump's executive actions to extend coronavirus aid, as well as escalating tensions between the U.S. and China. Here's what's happening: 

Monday’s market by the numbers:

  • The S&P 500 gained 0.27% for its seventh straight positive day
  • The Dow closed up 1.3% for its seventh straight positive day
  • The Nasdaq Composite shed 0.39% for its second consecutive negative session
  • The Russell 2,000 gained 0.99% for its second straight positive day
  • Six out of 11 sectors were positive led by energy, which gained 3.08% 
  • Gold futures settled 0.58% higher at $2,039.7/oz for its sixth positive session in seven. – Gina Francolla

Gold and silver 'due for a consolidation,' says Goldman's Currie

Gold hit an all-time intraday high on Friday and is coming off its ninth straight week of gains for the first time since 2006, and some are now saying a pullback might be coming.

"Given the run up we've seen in both gold and silver we're probably due for a consolidation phase," Jeffrey Currie, Goldman Sachs' global head of commodities research, said Monday on CNBC's "Closing Bell." "I would say this thing is probably going to take a breather for a little bit of time.

Gold futures gained 0.56% on Monday to settle at $2,039.70 per troy ounce (/oz).

At the end of July the firm raised its 12-month target on gold to $2,300/oz from $2,000 previously, and lifted its silver target to $30/oz from $22.

"We still have a lot of time between now and let's say we get a vaccine, or a normalization in growth, which means you're more likely than not to see more stimulus. More stimulus means more downward pressure on real rates and more upward pressure on gold prices," Currie added. - Pippa Stevens 

Dow rises 350 points as transports surge

The Dow rose for the seventh straight day on Monday, rising 359 points on the back of surging transportation stocks. The S&P 500 climbed 0.3% while the Nasdaq lost 0.4% as tech stocks struggled. — Jesse Pound

Final hour of trade: Dow at session highs

The Dow index continues to build on its solid session and has now gained about 350 points, or 1.3%. The S&P 500 rose a more modest 0.3%, while the Nasdaq lagged with a 0.3% loss. The Dow Transports average jumped 2.9%. — Jesse Pound

High beta ETF on track for best day in a month

The so-called high beta stocks jumped on Monday as stocks most sensitive to changes in overall market returns outperformed. High beta stocks exhibit greater volatility than the broader market, meaning these stocks move up more than the market on a positive day, and vice-versa. The Invesco S&P 500 High Beta ETF (SPHB), which tracks the 100 highest beta stocks in the S&P 500, gained almost 3% Monday, on pace for its best day since July 15. The gains in the ETF were led by MGM, Wynn, United, Alaska Air and Simon Property, which all climbed more than 5%. MGM soared 13%, on pace for its best day since April 6 after Barry Diller, chairman of the board and senior executive of IAC, took a 12% stake in the company as he bets big on online gambling.— Yun Li, Gina Francolla

Rise for transports is a 'great sign,' Cramer says

Strength in the transport stocks has lifted the Dow today, making it the outperformer of the three major averages. CNBC's Jim Cramer said on Twitter that this was bullish for the rest of the market. 

Similarly, MKM Partners chief market technician JC O'Hara said in a note to clients that the surge for transportation stocks may alleviate some doubts about the recent gains in other parts of the market. 

"A tenant of 'Dow Theory' is the confirmation by Transports of the move higher from the Industrial sector. It is a positive to see Transports, the area of the economy which connects products to the demand of the consumer, breaking higher," the note said. 

The Dow Jones Transportation Average rose 2.3%, with FedEx and airline stocks posting strong gains. — Jesse Pound

Don't 'bet against' internet stocks, Baird says

Baird told clients on Monday that as earnings season comes to a close, clients should stick with winners like Wayfair, Amazon, Shopify and PayPal. These stocks "generate the bulk of e-commerce transactions in the U.S., and investors will need to pay premiums" to own them according to analyst Colin Sebastian. "Q2 results largely confirmed trends that were pretty clear throughout the quarter with the 'stay-at-home' economy; e-commerce momentum, slow improvement in online advertising, cocooning effect on video game/social media/streaming video usage, faster adoption of e-commerce platform/digital payments, stronger cloud services pipelines," he said. "As always, don't bet against the Internet," Sebastian added. Shares of Amazon were down 1% in midday trading. - Michael Bloom

Markets at midday: Dow rallies, but rest of market struggles as tech shares languish

The Dow rallied more than 200 points, or 0.9%, around midday as shares of Boeing, Nike and Caterpillar all gained at least 3.5%. However, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were under pressure thanks in part to shares of major tech companies declining. The S&P 500 chopped around the flatline while the Nasdaq dipped 0.8%. —Fred Imbert

Airlines jump as TSA numbers hit pandemic high

Airline shares jumped in unison on Monday after federal data showed air travel at the highest volume in nearly five months. The number of people passing through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at U.S. airports rose for a second consecutive week with 831,789 people on Sunday alone, its highest level since March 17.

American Airlines shares surged more than 7%, while United Airlines and Delta Air Lines jumped 7.2% and 6.5%, respectively. Still, airlines have far to go before recovering to pre-pandemic levels. TSA traffic is down by about 70% from the same time a year ago. — Yun Li, Leslie Josephs

Tech shares lead market declines

The Nasdaq Composite turned lower on Monday, falling for a second straight day as some of the biggest technology names lagged the broader market. Shares of Microsoft, Facebook and Netflix all dropped more than 2%, while Amazon and Alphabet dipped over 1% each. The tech-heavy benchmark last traded 1.4% lower after rising 0.2% at its session high. The declines in major tech companies also led the S&P 500 down about 0.2%. — Yun Li

Citi raises price target on Etsy to a Street high of $170

Citi raised its price target on Etsy on Monday to a Street high of $170 from $100.  "We continue to view ETSY as a valuable platform for highly fragmented categories that are largely transacted offline," analyst Nicholas Jones said. The firm kept its buy/high risk rating on the e-commerce website. "As COVID-19 accelerates the transition of ETSY's verticals from offline to online, we believe ETSY's post-COVID reversion to normal trends will not be as severe as other platforms with end markets further along in online adoption," he said. Shares were down 2% in midday trading. - Michael Bloom

Homebuilders rally to record highs

Two exchange-traded funds that are made up of shares in the homebuilder sector rallied to all-time highs, building on their recently strong performances. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) climbed 1.9% on Tuesday and the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) jumped nearly 3%. Those gains put the XHB up nearly 37% over the past month and the ITB up 40% in that time period. —Fred Imbert, Gina Francolla

JOLTS report shows more than half a million job openings in June

Job openings increased at the fastest pace of the pandemic era in June while the level of hirings was the second best in history, the Labor Department reported Monday. Available positions totaled just shy of 5.9 million for the month, a 4.1% increase from May, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. That was up 518,000 and marked the strongest growth rate since the 4.4% level in February. Hirings totaled 6.7 million, which actually was a decrease of 503,000, or a 4.9% growth rate against the 5.4% in May. Separations increased by 4.8 million, an increase of 522,000, while quits, seen as a barometer of worker confidence, rose by 531,000 to a rate of 1.9%, also the best since the coronavirus crushed the labor market but still below the 2.3% level in February, a month before the pandemic declaration. Layoffs were little changed. The JOLTS report is closely watched for signs of labor slack, though it runs a month behind the government's nonfarm payrolls report, which showed a record growth of 4.8 million in June. — Jeff Cox

Strong second quarter earnings force Goldman to raise its 2020 earnings estimates

Goldman Sachs hiked its 2020 S&P 500 earnings estimate to $130 per share from $115 per share, citing a better-than-expected second quarter earnings season. Goldman's new estimate implies about a 20% decline in growth for earnings compared to last year. "Earnings season is coming to a close and S&P 500 results cleared an extremely low bar," Goldman Sachs chief economist David Kostin told clients. So far, S&P 500 earnings fell 34% year-over-year in the second quarter, while the consensus expected a drop of 44% and Goldman forecast a decline of 60%. Goldman also said the strength in earnings gave the firm "greater confidence" in its above consensus earnings estimates for next year. The bank is expecting the S&P 500 to earn $170 per share, a 30% increase from this year's estimate. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

Pro subscribers can read more here

Dow rises 150 points at the open

Major U.S. stock averages began Monday's session in the green as investors monitored the latest development on the next coronavirus stimulus package. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 150 points at the open, boosted by a 3% jump in Nike shares. The S&P 500 gained 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1%. The S&P 500 is now just 1% below its record high of 3,393.52 from February 19..Yun Li

Mnuchin says open to reaching a stimulus deal this week

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday the Trump administration is willing to reach a deal with Democratic leaders on the  coronavirus relief bill and would offer more aid money to try to reach a compromise.

"The president is determined to spend what we need to spend. ... We're prepared to put more money on the table," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "If we can get a fair deal we're willing to do it this week ... We are not the ones holding this up."

Mnuchin declined to say when he and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows would restart discussions with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after negotiations ground to a halt on Friday. His comments came after President Donald Trump attempted to offer coronavirus aid through executive order over the weekend. — Yun Li, Jacob Pramuk

Here are Monday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Apple, FedEx, Nvidia, Facebook & more

  • Evercore ISI initiated J.B. Hunt as outperform.
  • Wedbush raised its price target on Apple to $515 from $475.
  • Mizuho raised its price target on Facebook to $315 from $285.
  • Bernstein upgraded FedEx to outperform from market perform.
  • Deutsche Bank raised its price target on Apple to $480 from $440.
  • Bank of America raised its price target on Nvidia to $520 from $460.
  • Morgan Stanley upgraded Pinterest to overweight from equal weight.

Pro Subscribers read more here. - Michael Bloom

Trump signs orders aimed at economic relief

President Donald Trump over the weekend issued one executive order and three presidential memoranda aimed at extending economic relief programs during the pandemic, but the moves were criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Trump's actions defer payroll taxes for certain income levels, use disaster relief funds to extend unemployment benefits, extend the suspension of student loan payments and direct government agencies to look at extending the moratorium on evictions. The moves came after the White House and Congressional Democrats failed to strike a deal on larger legislation last week. — Jesse Pound

Berkshire stock climbs after conglomerate buys backs record amount of equity

Berkshire Hathaway stock rose in premarket trading Monday after the company said on Saturday that it purchased a record amount of its own equity in the second quarter. Berkshire, led by Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, said it repurchased $5.1 billion worth in stock in May and June, split between $4.6 billion of Class B equity and $486.6 million in Class A equity.

Shares of Berkshire's Class B stock gained 0.6% before the bell following news of the record buybacks. The second-quarter buybacks were nearly double the $2.2 billion the conglomerate spent to buy back equity in the fourth quarter of 2019 and surpasses the entire value of stock Buffett repurchased in all of 2019. — Thomas Franck

Amazon reportedly discussing fulfillment center deal with mall owner

Amazon and Simon Property Group have discussed the e-commerce giant using department store locations as fulfillment centers, The Wall Street Journal reported. The talks have focused on locations for Sears and J.C. Penney, which have both filed for bankruptcy, according to the report. Amazon and Simon Property Group declined to comment to CNBC. Shares of Simon jumped 6% in premarket trading. — Jesse Pound

Twitter interested in buying TikTok

Popular video app TikTok reportedly was approached by social media company Twitter about a possible merger, according to multiple reports over the weekend. Twitter is the latest company to show interest in the Chinese owned media company. Microsoft has been working with the U.S. government on a deal to facilitate its purchase of TikTok's U.S. business. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday ordering U.S. firms to stop doing business with TikTok and WeChat due to its Chinese ownership. —Maggie Fitzgerald 

Kodak shares tumble as questions rise over its deal with the government

Kodak shares are falling as quickly as they rose, following news that the filmmaker's deal with the government to produce drugs that could help fight the coronavirus has run into a snag. The stock tumbled more than 40% in premarket trading, after the U.S. Development Finance Corporation tweeted Friday that it will "not proceed any further" until "allegations of wrongdoing [that] raise serious concerns … are cleared." The Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly is looking into allegations regarding the way the company disclosed the deal with the government. The stock soared last week on the news, going from less than $3 a share to $60. A Kodak spokesman declined comment to CNBC. The company has launched an internal investigation. — Jeff Cox

China sanctions U.S. officials in retaliation over Hong Kong.

China said Monday it would apply sanctions against 11 U.S. citizens in response to Washington's sanctions on 11 Hong Kong and Chinese officials for curtailing political freedoms in the city. Among those targeted were Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley and Pat Toomey and Representative Chris Smith, as well as individuals at non-profits and rights groups. "In response to those wrong U.S. behaviors, China has decided to impose sanctions on individuals who have behaved egregiously on Hong Kong-related issues," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing on Monday. — Yun Li

Stock futures flat following strong week

Futures tied to major U.S. stock averages were flat Monday morning as investors assessed President Donald Trump's several executive orders aimed at extending coronavirus relief. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures edged up about 70 points, indicating an opening gain of around 60 points. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed. Wall Street was coming off a strong weekly performance. The Dow climbed 3.8% last week for its biggest weekly gain since June, while the S&P 500 climbed 2.5%, sitting just 1.2% below its record high in February.— Yun Li