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U.S. stocks close higher as investors look for fresh catalysts

Xinhua, May 8, 2017 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks closed slightly higher Monday as investors were looking for fresh catalysts following Emmanuel Macron's victory in French presidential election.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 5.34 points, or 0.03 percent, to 21,012.28. The S&P 500 inched up 0.09 points, or less than 0.01 percent, to 2,399.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 1.90 points, or 0.03 percent, to 6,102.66.

The Centrist Emmanuel Macron won 65.68 percent of the votes cast in the runoff of the French presidential election on Sunday, according to the overall results published on Monday by the French Interior Ministry.

The result makes the 39-year-old former economy minister the eighth president of the French Fifth Republic, and the youngest one ever.

Analysts said the result reduced uncertainty in the European market, and will lead to positive development.

In U.S. economic news, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard and Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester spoke before the opening bell.

According to media reports, Mester said the central bank should continue on its gradual path of raising interest rates to prevent the risk of overheating the U.S. economy. Bullard, on the other hand, said that continued strong demand for safe assets along with sluggish growth in the U.S. workforce will hold down.

The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rates unchanged last week as it waited for more data to assess the U.S. economic outlook. But the Fed policymakers hinted at a possible rate hike in June.

Market expectations for a June rate hike were 87.7 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool Monday.

In corporate news, shares of Kate Spade rose 8.31 percent for the day to 18.38 U.S. dollars after Coach Inc said it would buy the company for 2.4 billion dollars.

Last week, all three major indices posted gains on strong first-quarter earnings reports and economic data.

The blue-chip Dow rose 0.3 percent, and the broader S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 0.9 percent. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs on Friday. Enditem