US stocks moved higher on Monday, led by gains in the Nasdaq ahead of several key company’s earnings later in the week. Thursday will be a key day for the markets as Amazon, Apple, and Facebook are all scheduled to released financial results. Sectors in the S&P 500 index were mixed, led higher by technology, Utilities and energy bucked the trend. The dollar continued to head south, helping to buoy gold prices and the mining companies.

The VIX continued to ease, declining to 25.4, which is still well above the 2019 average. Durable goods orders moved higher on Monday, rising more than expected, but this failed to buoy US yields. Google announced that it will keep employees away from their offices until the summer of 2021. Under Armor received a Wells Notice from the SEC related to the companies accounting practices. The information was not referred to the Justice Department which means that it’s only civil and not criminal. The founder of the company Kevin Plank was named in the investigation. On Tuesday several key companies will release earnings results. This includes McDonald’s, Visa, Starbucks, Amgen, and Pfizer.

Durable Goods Orders Rise More than Expected

Durable goods orders increased 7.3% in June after rebounding 15.1% in May. Durable goods orders were driven by robust demand for motor vehicles, which accelerated 85.7% after increasing 28.8% in May. That offset a 462.3% plunge in civilian aircraft orders, leading to a 20% rise in orders for transportation equipment. Motor vehicles have a bigger weighting in the transportation category. Orders for transportation equipment surged 78.9% in May. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, jumped 3.3% last month. That was the biggest increase in these so-called core capital goods orders since July 2018 and followed a 1.6% rise in May.