US stock market
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The U.S. stock market soared on Monday, hoping for another stimulus package out of Washington.

This, after ignoring negative headlines on the market over the past few weeks.

The Dow closed 1.5 percent or 410 points higher. The index had increased more than 500 points at its high point.

The broader S&P 500 spiked 1.6 percent. These gains come after four consecutive weeks of losses.

The Nasdaq Composite finished 1.9 percent higher.

Safety assets like the U.S. dollar sold off as an appetite for riskier investments boosted stocks.

Stock investors are hoping that Congress will agree on a new stimulus deal.

This, despite talks of a stimulus package, has not reached any agreement in recent months.

White House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday said that Democrats might present their latest stimulus proposal as legislation.

Meanwhile, economists are pessimistic as investors are feeling good about a possible deal.

Morgan Stanley became the latest bank to downgrade its growth outlook due to another stimulus bill's thinning chance this year.

Sebastien Galy, the senior macro strategist at Nordea, said that stocks are higher because investors almost always need to buy some stocks at the end of the month.

This unless they decide they want to be less invested than before, Galy added.

Meanwhile, earlier reports showed that Americans with extra time and money on their hands had entered stock trading.

TD Ameritrade Chief Market Strategist JJ Kinahan said that all-time highs never hurt getting people interested in the market.

Research from a software and data aggregation company, Envestnet Yodlee, found that trading was among the more commonly used for the $1 200 stimulus cash.

That was especially true for people who earn between $35,000 and $75,000 per year.

These people in that income range salary increased stock trading by 90 percent in the week after receiving their stimulus checks.

Meanwhile, those with annual incomes between $100,000 to $150,000 increased trading by 82 percent.

For people earning more than $150,000, they increased that activity by 50 percent.

Stock trading app Robinhood also saw a spike in investment activity.

A company spokesperson said that they had seen an increase in the percentage of deposits amounting to $2,100 or $2,400.

"This was around the week of April 13, when people first started getting their stimulus checks," the spokesperson was quoted.

Other firms such as Betterment and TD Ameritrade said they have also seen a change in investing behavior.

However, they have not monitored activity expressly related to the stimulus checks.

Dan Egan, managing director of behavioral finance and investing at Betterment, said that since lockdowns in the pandemic, people have not been able to do other things they normally do.

Egan cited examples like watching sports.

"There has been some people who are using investing as a form of entertainment," Egan was quoted.

JJ Kinahan, the chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade, also said that many people had used the extra time at home to pay attention to the market.

Kinahan said their last earnings and their last competitors' las earnings showed a great increase in the number of people participating in the market.

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