By Heard Editors

What Happened in Markets Today

The Dow industrials rose modestly to start the week, building on a Friday rebound. Investors brushed off Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's comment over the weekend that "corrections are healthy," after last week saw President Trump's tariff threats push the S&P 500 into its first correction since late 2023. The Dow rose 0.9% Monday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.6%, and the Nasdaq gained 0.3%. The VIX fell 6% to just under 21.

Retail sales rose modestly last month. New data showed that declining consumer confidence hadn't yet caused spending to crack. Sales climbed a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in February from the prior month, the Commerce Department reported. That was less than the 0.6% gain expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Chinese tech giant Baidu gained 9%. The company released a new artificial intelligence model, called Ernie X1, and claimed the model's performance is on par with DeepSeek's open-source AI model, but at only half the price.

Berkshire Hathaway raised its holdings in five major Japanese trading houses. Shares of Itochu, Sumitomo, Marubeni, Mitsubishi and Mitsui each rose. So did shares in Berkshire, Warren Buffett's conglomerate, itself.

Intel gained 7%, among the S&P 500's best performers Monday. Investors continued to respond favorably to the chip maker's new chief executive, Lip-Bu Tan, and his plans for reviving the company.

This analysis comes from the Journal's Heard on the Street team. Subscribe to their free daily afternoon newsletter here.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 17, 2025 16:41 ET (20:41 GMT)

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