Wall Street closes up on infrastructure gains but Tesla weighs

Wall Street stocks ended slightly higher on Monday, gaining early in the day as investors cheered passage of a US infrastructure spending bill, but paring gains late as sliding Tesla shares weighed the indexes down.

All three major US stock indexes pared early gains but closed higher. Still, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq extending their run of all-time closing highs to eight straight sessions.

"It has become a self-fulfilling prophesy," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.

"Why are the indexes going up? Because people are buying," Nolte added. "Why are they buying? Because the indexes going up."

Tesla Inc was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. Its shares fell following CEO Elon Musk's Twitter poll on whether he should sell about 10 per cent of his holdings of stock in the electric automaker company he founded. The poll garnered more than 3.5 million votes, with 57.9 per cent voting "Yes".

Economically sensitive cyclicals, smallcaps and chips led the charge higher, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index hitting a record high.

Industrials and materials got a boost after the US Congress passed President Joe Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure spending bill on Saturday.

"Over the weekend we got another trillion dollars thrown at the economy which is already running hot," Nolte said. "So investors are looking at that as a very good thing for equity markets."

Caterpillar Inc, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc, Freeport McMoRan and US Steel Corp were among companies riding the wave to solid gains.

Lawmakers now turn to Biden's social spending bill, with the House of Representatives expected to vote on the measure next week, according to White House economic adviser Brian Deese.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 4.09 points, or 0.09 per cent, to end at 4,701.53 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 9.73 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 15,981.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 108.45 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 36,436.40.

The third-quarter reporting season has reached the final stretch, with 445 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported as of Friday. Of those, 81 per cent have come in above analyst expectations, according to Refinitiv.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain-related stocks, including those of Coinbase Global, Riot Blockchain, Marathon Digital Holdings and MicroStrategy Inc rose sharply, as ether scaled new peaks and bitcoin neared a record high.

Shares of cosmetics maker Coty Inc jumped after the company hiked annual organic sales forecast.

Nextdoor Holdings Inc surged in its volatile debut after the neighborhood network platform was brought public in a deal with Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Check out latest DH videos here