Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index finished in positive territory Monday, rising 1.35% to $5,201.87. Major U.S. stock exchanges turned green following steep losses on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.2%, or nearly 485 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite advanced by an identical 1.6%.
Chipmakers and airline stocks helped Wall Street recover from its worst weekly performance to start September. Super Micro Computer (Nasdaq: SMCI) and JetBlue Airways (Nasdaq: JBLU) popped 6.06% and 7.17% to lead their sector peers. Top S&P 500 decliner, solar tech firm Enphase Energy (Nasdaq: ENPH), sunk 5.16%.
Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) took center stage to start the week as it popped 14.08% to lead 24 GovCon Index advancers. Maximus (NYSE: MMS) topped six decliners, with -0.86%. The five-for-one forward stock split of Tetra Tech (Nasdaq: TTEK) took effect on Monday, and it closed at $45.59 (+1.21%).
AI stock Palantir, a top candidate for the benchmark index, will finally join the S&P 500 on Sept. 23, 2024. Besides hitting a 52-week high of $34.69, it is now up 101.51% year-to-date.
Parsons (NYSE: PSN), the second-best performer with +4.49%, was added to the S&P MidCap 400 Index, effective on pre-trading Sept. 23. The United States Army Corps of Engineers Honolulu District also awarded the engineering firm a three-year, $68.5 million single-award contract. It will design-bid-build and deliver new U.S. Army housing units in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Boeing (NYSE: BA) rose 3.36% to $162.91 on news that the plane maker averted a workers’ strike after it reached a tentative agreement with union members on a new labor contract. The successful return of its Starliner spacecraft, minus the astronauts, from the International Space Station, was positive for the airline stock.
The U.S. Navy awarded Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH), CACI (NYSE: CACI), and three other contractors an estimated $80.8 million modification to a previously awarded multiple award, cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts supporting the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education domain.
Inflation-related data due this week includes the consumer price index, producer price index, core CPI, core PPI, and jobless claims. The Feds will digest these reports before the two-day policy meeting on Sept. 17-18 and the interest rate announcement.
