STORY: U.S. stocks finished higher on Monday with sharp gains for Tesla and Apple leading the way, as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's policy meeting later this week and its outlook for interest rates.
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the session up between three and four tenths of one percent each.
Tesla shares soared 15% after the electric vehicle maker made progress in securing regulatory approval to launch its advanced driver-assistance program in China, its second-largest market after the U.S.
Shares od Apple climbed 2 and a half percent after Bernstein upgraded the stock to outperform, and a report said the iPhone maker had renewed discussions with OpenAI about using the startup's generative artificial intelligence technology.
Meanwhile, the Fed is expected to hold rates steady following its meeting Wednesday.
FBB Capital Partners Senior Portfolio Manager Mel Casey said he will be paying close attention to what the central bank has to say about the economy and then will turn his attention to the jobs report out Friday.
"If you look at the jobs report at the end of the week, like probably not anything huge we're expecting out of that in terms of the lead to any action. But we don't want to see super-hot or super cold. We're looking for kind of a Goldilocks, you know, just right jobs report where we continue to add jobs but not at a level that overheats the economy or not that we're losing jobs to the point that we're hurtling towards a recession."
Other stocks on the move included Domino's Pizza which added nearly 6% after it topped quarterly profit and sales estimates.
And shares of crypto-related stocks sank, with Coinbase Global and crypto miners Riot Platforms and Marathon Digital all falling more than 7%, as the price of bitcoin fell.
