Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on July 01, 2026 in New York City.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite maintained their positive momentum on Monday following a strong week on Wall Street.

The broad market index gained 0.7%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 1.5% as markets started a new trading week following Friday's U.S. Independence Day holiday. The 30-stock Dow last traded just below the flatline after earlier surpassing 53,000 for the first time ever.

Tech stocks rose broadly. The State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) climbed more than 2%, led by a 7% climb in Western Digital and a 6% jump in Teradyne. Marvell Technology and Oracle also gained more than 4% and more than 2%, respectively.

The Dow climbed nearly 2% last week, putting it within striking distance of 53,000, a level it has never reached. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also posted sharp gains last week, advancing 1.8% and 2.1%, respectively.

Those gains came even as semiconductors — the force behind many of the market's gains this year — faltered last week, with investors paring exposure to chipmakers and rotating into other sectors. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) shed 3.2%, marking its second losing week in a row. Still, the fund closed out the first six months of the year with a gain of more than 80%.

"Expectations are really high, and so I don't know if you're going to see as much upside in the second half in these stocks as we did in the first half," said Anthony Saglimbene, Ameriprise Financial's chief market strategist. "As long as they confirm that fundamentals are strong, then I think they could probably melt a little bit higher."

In that vein, Saglimbene expects there to be an ebb and flow between leaders in the artificial intelligence trade and the broader market over the coming months. That especially depends on whether AI-related companies can reaffirm their outlooks and post "strong" profits, he added.

"I don't think you can count on either of them carrying the torch for the second half of the year," the strategist said. "It's really going to be about the fundamentals, growth in earnings, level of interest rates, growth in the economy, and all that points to a pretty positive backdrop right now."

Shares of Microsoft fell more than 1% after the company said it's cutting 4,800 jobs, or 2.1% of its workforce. On the flip side, shares of Dell Technologies gained more than 4% after President Donald Trump promoted the company's computers from the White House after he rang the opening bell.

Traders this week will turn their eyes to the Federal Reserve, with the minutes of the June meeting — the first led by new Chairman Kevin Warsh — due Wednesday.

European stock markets were muted, with the pan-continental Stoxx 600 slipping 0.2%. Asia-Pacific ended mixed on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 closed little changed, while the broader Topix gained 0.92%. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.46% and the small-cap Kosdaq tumbled 2.46%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.15% to close at 8,831.00. China's CSI 300 ended flat at 4,842, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was last trading 0.81% higher.