U. S. stocks closed mixed Monday. The Dow closed up 350 points, its highest level since March, led by Boeing Co and Caterpillar Inc. The market keeps a close eye on the results and the executive order signed by Trump. Negotiations on US fiscal stimulus went nowhere, with Mr Trump bypassing Congress over the weekend to sign an executive order aimed at expanding anti-epidemic relief measures.

The Dow rose 357.96 points, or 1.30%, to 27791.44; the Nasdaq fell 42.63 points, or 0.39%, to 10968.36; and the S & P 500 rose 9.19 points, or 0.27%, to 3360.47.

Dow component Boeing Co closed 5.5% higher, Caterpillar Inc 5.3%, Dow 5%, Raytheon 4.9%, Nike Inc 3.5%, Chevron Corp 3.4%, Walgreens United Boots 3.2%. American Express Co, Exxon Mobil Corp and Intel Corp all rose 2.5 per cent.

Most US technology stocks fell, while Apple Inc rose more than 1%, making it the only FAANMG stock that rose.

This week the market will usher in important economic data such as US retail sales and CPI. The analysis shows that the epidemic situation of coronavirus, the prospect of economic recovery and the international situation make the global market face great uncertainty.

Corporate earnings are still getting attention. After the close of US stocks on Monday, NVAX, IAC/InteractiveCorp (IAC), OXY, J2Global (JCOM) and Zoom Info Technologies (ZI) will report results.

There is no progress in the negotiations on US fiscal stimulus, and the time for resumption of negotiations is uncertain.

Lengthy negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on a new round of fiscal stimulus packages to fight the epidemic were suspended on Friday and failed to reach a deal. Neither side has disclosed when it will restart in the future. At present, the U.S. House of Representatives adjourned on July 31 until September, while the Senate adjourned after August 7.

The big difference between the two parties in Congress is the size of the stimulus package. The Democratic plan totaled $3.4 trillion, including nearly $1 trillion in aid to state and local governments under financial pressure.

The Republican plan is only $1 trillion and does not include a new round of funding for state and local governments. But the Republican plan includes a new round of 1200 dollars in cash subsidies for each working class, billions in supplementary funding for small business loan programs, liability exemption protection for employers and aid to schools.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said Friday that she had come up with a compromise: an increase of $1 trillion for Republicans and $1 trillion for Democrats, but the two sides have yet to reach an agreement.

The White House had also hoped to reach agreement on a smaller bill that would include funding for schools, wage protection schemes for small businesses and unemployment benefits. But the bill was also not approved by the Democratic Party.

Trump bypassed Congress to issue an executive order to rescue the epidemic, or face legal challenges

U.S. president Donald Trump signed an executive order on the 8th to extend some of the expired anti-epidemic relief measures. Trump's executive order includes a requirement for additional unemployment assistance of $400 a week for the unemployed, a deferred payroll tax for those earning less than $100000 a year, a moratorium on evictions to protect tenants, and relief for student loans.

On August 8, local time, Trump signed four rescue measures. Trump signed an executive order and three executive memorandums on the same day, according to documents released by the White House. Among them, a memo proposes to provide unemployment benefits of $400 a week to the unemployed in the United States, 75% of which is funded by the federal government and 25% by the state government.

It is not clear whether Trump has the constitutional power to issue the executive order. In addition, the financial support of the states is essential in the rescue plan issued by Trump to bypass Congress, and it is unclear whether the states will implement the executive order.

Trump's executive order will soon face legal challenges because the continuation of these plans will require the use of federal funds controlled by Congress. Measures related to taxes and spending usually require legislative action by Congress, and Trump said his order may be questioned by Congress, but he believes Americans will soon receive promised relief.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, Congress has approved an additional $600 a week in relief for the unemployed, but the subsidy expired on August 1, and Congress has been unable to reach an agreement to extend it.

Under Trump's executive order, states are required to provide $100 of the $400 a week in additional benefits. But under the impact of the epidemic, many states have faced budget tightening.

With the end of the last round of additional federal unemployment benefits in the stimulus package, the situation for the unemployed in the United States has become more difficult and a bigger obstacle to the economic recovery in the United States.

Trump's act of bypassing Congress to issue four executive orders sparked anger among Democrats such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer.

In a statement, Pelosi and Schumer said: "We are disappointed that the president did not choose to solve the problems of Americans, but chose to stay on his luxury golf course, announcing unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements. Cut unemployment benefits urgently needed by millions of people and endanger social security and health insurance for the elderly. "

On another occasion, Pelosi called Trump's actions "ridiculously unconstitutional." Former Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday called Trump's executive order to cut payroll taxes a "reckless war on Social Security" that would "destroy the entire fiscal base of Social Security."

But White House officials defended the orders. Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin argued that the White House Office of legal Counsel (Office of Legal Counsel) thought the orders would work.

White House Press Secretary McNerney said Monday that the executive order is entirely within the executive purview of the president.

With more than 5 million confirmed cases, Fed officials have called for stricter blockade measures to control the epidemic.

At present, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States has exceeded the 5 million mark, equivalent to one in 66 Americans, while it only took 17 days for the number of confirmed cases to rise from 4 million to 5 million. There is also an accelerated rise in the case rate: according to statistics over the past period of time, an average of one person in the United States dies from coronavirus-related diseases every 80 seconds.

According to Worldometer data, the cumulative number of confirmed coronavirus in the United States reached 5.19 million, with a cumulative death toll of 165000, ranking first in the world.

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp, pointed out that the United States made a series of mistakes in the response to the epidemic and did not expect the response of the United States to be so poor. The United States blockade is not enforced throughout the country, and its requirements are not as strict as those of other countries, and it has paid a huge price, resulting in not only the highest number of deaths in the world, but also economic losses of trillions of dollars.

Gates also pointed out that virus testing in the United States is so shocking and confusing. The federal government does not intend to improve testing capabilities, but brags about how well it has done. The government has spent billions of dollars to get the most worthless test results in the world.

Neil Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said a few days ago that the coronavirus epidemic continues to spread rapidly in the United States, indicating that the current response measures of the United States are not effective. The United States should implement "stricter blockade measures" across the country to control the epidemic.

Kashkali and Michael Osterhom, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, jointly published an article saying that without stricter blockade measures, millions of new cases and more deaths could occur in the United States before the vaccine is available. In addition, the article believes that the United States will not achieve a strong economic recovery until the epidemic is brought under control.

In the absence of an obvious decline in the epidemic, many states in the United States have started the process of resuming work and production since late April. By late May, all states in the United States had started to resume work and production. But just a few weeks later, the epidemic rebounded in many states, and more than 20 states were forced to suspend the process of resuming work and production.

Focus stocks

Kodak shares plummeted. The company's $765 million drug loan agreement with the US government has been shelved because of "recent allegations of misconduct" by Kodak.

McDonald's Corp received attention. Environmental groups have reportedly found toxic PFAS in food packaging at major fast food restaurants such as MCD, Burger King and Wendy "s.

Twitter is said to have held preliminary talks with TikTok on a potential merger.

Tesla, Inc. spent nearly $100m to buy land for his Texas super factory.

SpaceX and the United launch Alliance have won billions of dollars worth of launch contracts from the U.S. Air Force.

JD.com 's investment company owns 20% of Shengfu convenience store.

Other markets

European stocks closed slightly higher on Monday, with Germany's DAX index up 0.07% and France's CAC40 index up 0.41%.

Gold futures closed higher on Monday. Gold prices were supported by strained international political relations after gold futures prices ended five consecutive gains on Friday.

It is reported that 11 US citizens, including Republican senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, have been subject to foreign sanctions.

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities, said: "the price of gold rose as the news of sanctions against Americans supported gold prices after being hit by profit-taking on Friday. "

Gold futures for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $11.70, or 0.6%, to close at $2039.70 an ounce. Gold futures closed down 2 per cent on Friday, narrowing their weekly gains to 2.1 per cent.

Silver futures for September delivery rose $1.72, or 6.3 per cent, to close at $29.261 an ounce, nearing the important $30 mark. Silver futures rose 13.7% last week.

Crude oil futures closed higher on Monday. Oil prices have been boosted by optimistic comments from CEO, the world's largest oil company, on the outlook for future demand and positive energy consumption data from China.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery rose 72 cents, or 1.8%, to $41.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the benchmark for global crude oil prices, rose 59 cents, or 1.3%, to close at $44.99 a barrel.

Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, said at the weekend that oil demand had seen a "partial recovery", praised the strong rebound in crude oil demand in major markets and stressed that China's gasoline and diesel demand had returned to pre-coronavirus levels.

According to media reports, China is the world's largest consumer of gasoline and diesel fuel. Net income of Saudi Aramco, a state-owned company, plummeted by 50% in the first half of this year.