Stock Market Today: Stocks Sizzle to Start Off the New Week

Perhaps last week's selloff was a touch overdone.

That seemed to be the stock market's implied message Monday, anyway, as the broader indexes all roared ahead despite no new major developments over the weekend.

Energy (XLE, +4.3%) was the clear leader today, fueled by a 2.8% surge in U.S. crude oil futures, to $73.66 per barrel, after Bank of America commodities strategist Francisco Blanch said oil could hit $100 per barrel in 2022. He cites drivers including "plenty of pent-up mobility demand after an 18-month lockdown," lagging mass transit and the potential for oil firms to spend less on production amid stricter government energy policies.

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Oil stocks such as EOG Resources (EOG, +7.2%) and Marathon Oil (MRO, +6.9%) were among the sector's biggest winners.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.8% to 33,876) reversed course after its worst week since October, as did the S&P 500 (+1.4% to 4,224) and Nasdaq Composite (+0.8% to 14,141) – a continuation of an up-and-down past couple months.

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"Volatility is likely to continue as the financial markets are facing a period of reckoning," says Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management, noting that interest-rate uncertainty and high equity prices raise at least the possibility of a market correction.

Other action in the stock market today:

• The small-cap Russell 2000 was the best of the major indexes on Monday, jumping 2.2% to 2,286.
• Moderna (MRNA, +4.5%) gained ground today, after The Wall Street Journal reported the drugmaker was adding two additional manufacturing lines at a plant outside Boston in order to increase capacity for producing its COVID-19 vaccine, as well as making booster shots for the virus. Company officials expect 50% growth in production due to the extra lines.
• It was another volatile session for Lordstown Motors (RIDE, -5.5%) after a regulatory filing revealed five top executives – including the president and former chief financial officer – sold blocks of stock in February, just ahead of the electric truck maker's mid-March earnings report. It has been a rough stretch for RIDE, which warned off serious cash problems earlier this month and saw its CEO and CFO step down one week ago.
• Gold futures rose 0.8% to settle at $1,782.90 an ounce.
• The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) slumped by 13.3% to 17.95.
• Bitcoin prices didn't snap back over the weekend, declining 8.0% to $32,614.04. Fellow cryptocurrency Ethereum was even worse, off 10.2% to $1,946.76. "What is happening today is a classic deleveraging,” says Charlie Silver, CEO of Permission.io, a cryptocurrency-enabled provider of e-commerce permission advertising. “Ethereum is the currency that is mostly used in DeFi bets, which allow traders to lever up 100x or more. This move down over the last few weeks has caused an unwinding of highly leveraged bets, which [has led] to a cascade of selling." (Cryptocurrencies trade 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.)

Where to Find Green-Energy Comeback Plays

2021 has been a great year for traditional energy, but a lousy one for green energy. But it's hardly a harbinger of doom for clean-energy stocks.

Take the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN), for instance: The fund is off roughly 20% in 2021, grossly underperforming both the S&P 500 (+12.5%) and its energy sector (+42.4%), but that follows a 140%-plus run-up to all-time highs a year prior.

For opportunists, this drawdown is presenting a second chance on an industry that many analysts and experts believe will be a long-term winner.

The ways in which you can invest in a greener earth are growing, too.

There are solar stocks, a few of which have been around for decades and represent clean energy's "old guard." A little fresher-faced are electric vehicle (EV) stocks, which are growing in number like weeds.

If you're curious about the various ways you can "green up" your portfolio, however, consider this list of seven attractive green energy stocks representing numerous industries. There's something for everyone – from highflying growth chasers to income hunters seeking out juicy yields.