By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened the week higher, rebounding from a week of losses amid brighter news from the pandemic front.
The number of new Covid-19 infections fell consistently last week to be more than 10% off its peak. that has encouraged hopes that the 'delta wave' of the pandemic may soon be over in the U.S., even though deaths - a lagging indicator - are still near record levels in some parts of the country.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 291 points, or 0.8%, at 34,899 points. That was outperforming the S&P 500, which was up 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite, which was up 0.1%.
Early trading was dominated by frenzied buying of uranium-themed stocks and other products, the latest Big Idea to catch the imagination of retail traders. By 9:50 AM ET (1350 GMT), Cameco (NYSE:CCJ) - the largest North American producer - was up 6.2%, while Uranium Energy (NYSE:UEC) was up 8.1%. Uranium futures have risen over 33% since the middle of August, as a narrative of an undersupplied global market has combined with short-term price spikes in spot power markets in Europe and North America due to low generation from renewables.
Mystery surrounded the other major news of the open, after the official Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) account of cryptocurrency Litecoin deleted a tweet claiming it had struck a long-term partnership deal with Walmart. While the tweet corroborated a legitimate-seeming press release issued through the Globe Newswire organization, it was not independently confirmed by Walmart, and the release also contained an erroneous email address for the supposed media contact at the retail giant. Walmart (NYSE:WMT) stock initially rose over 1% before retreating to be up 0.5%.
Walmart, which attracted attention to its plans for potential crypto cooperation some months back with advertisements for a project manager, subsequently issued a statement denying any linkup with Litecoin.
The incident is likely to revive debate around the inherent trustworthiness of the crypto space, at a time when U.S. regulators are making increasingly threatening noises about its accountability and reliability. Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) stock, a rough proxy for the sector in general, fell 2.7%, The company, which crossed swords with the Securities and Exchanges Commission last week over its plans to offer a crypto lending product, had earlier announced plans to borrow $1.5 billion through a senior note issue.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock rose 0.4% but lost some of its premarket vigor, as concerns about Friday's court ruling in favor of Fortnite publisher Epic Games continued to cast doubt over the future earning power of its app store. Both companies have said they will appeal the decision, which would allow Epic - and other game developers - to bypass Apple's payment options in future, and consequently avoid the 30% commission charged by the iPhone maker.