Mixed markets | Calamatta Cuschieri

U.S. stocks ended with solid gains in a lightly traded session on Monday, as optimism persisted over first-quarter earnings season and worries over Syria faded.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 212.90 points, or 0.9%, to end at 24,573.04, with 25 of its 30 components in positive territory. The S&P 500 index added 21.54 points, or 0.8%, to finish at 2,677.84, a rise of 0.8%, turning positive for the year. Gains were broad-based, with all 11 primary S&P 500 sectors higher on the day and eight of them rising at least 1%.

European stocks however finished Monday's trading session in negative territory, as investors kept abreast of the latest in politics. The pan-European STOXX 600 ended provisionally down 0.39 percent, with almost all of the region's sectors closing the session lower. On the bourses front, Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.91 percent, France's CAC 40 dipped 0.04 percent while Germany's DAX fell 0.41 percent.

Toyota’s “Talking vehicles”

Toyota Motor Corp plans to start selling U.S. vehicles that can talk to each other using short-range wireless technology in 2021, the Japanese automaker said on Monday, potentially preventing thousands of accidents annually. Toyota hopes to adopt the dedicated short-range communications systems in the United States across most of its lineup by the mid-2020s. Toyota said it hopes that by announcing its plans, other automakers will follow suit.

Automakers were granted a block of spectrum in 1999 in the 5.9 GHz band for “vehicle-to-vehicle” and “vehicle to infrastructure” communications and have studied the technology for more than a decade, but it has gone largely unused. Some in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission think it should be opened to other uses. Toyota has deployed the technology in Japan to more than 100,000 vehicles since 2015.

Production Model 3 setback

Tesla Inc. is temporarily suspending production of the Model 3 sedan for at least the second time in roughly two months, just after Elon Musk admitted to mistakes that hindered his most important car. Tesla employees are expected to use vacation days or stay home without pay during the Model 3 downtime, though a small number may be offered paid work elsewhere at the factory in Fremont, California.

The production halt is another setback for the first model Musk has tried to mass-manufacture. In addition to trying to bring electric vehicles to the mainstream, the chief executive officer had sought to build a competitive advantage over established automakers by installing more robots to quickly produce vehicles. Last week, he acknowledged “excessive” automation at Tesla was a mistake.

This article was issued by Peter Petrov, Junior Trader at Calamatta Cuschieri. For more information visit, www.cc.com.mt. The information, view and opinions provided in this article is being provided solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice. Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Services Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.