Wall Street Close: US stocks surge and Nasdaq powers to record high

US stocks rallied on Monday following a stock-market rally in China after a state-run newspaper published an editorial saying it was important to foster a healthy bull market in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The front-page editorial in the China Securities Journal on Monday helped push the Shanghai composite index up 5.7%, its biggest single-day increase since 2015.

Accompanying the news, it was noted by Bloomberg that searches for how to open a stock account surged on social media in China following the editorial.

Also, new economic data showed a much stronger than expected rebound in US service sector activity in June. 

Investors are supercharged on a series of upbeat global economic data releases that have been streaming through over the past weeks.

Last week's strong June jobs report last week that said American businesses added 4.8 million payrolls last month, handily beating expectations of a 3 million increase helped to lift spirits at the start of this week.

The upbeat data helped investors shake off fears over rising coronavirus cases, with infections continuing to march higher globally and domestically.

More on that here: US COVID-19 storm clouds, transmission rate on the rise, concerns over airborne spread

Surprise US data smashing expectations 

Following the lead of the majority of US data releases for last month, the June ISM non-manufacturing index raced higher to 57.1 (last: 45.4, mkt: 50.2).

"That was the highest reading since February and mirrored the improvement seen in the manufacturing index as the economy has reopened," analysts at ANZ Bank explained.

New orders jumped to 61.6 from 41.9 and production rose to 66.0 from 41.0. Employment remains in contractionary territory, but lifted to 43.1 from 31.8. Looking forward, questions remain over whether the pace of recovery can be maintained with case numbers continuing to lift.

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