While you were sleeping: UPDATED Apple becomes first $US800 billion company

Wall Street was mixed, after touching record highs earlier in the day, as the price of oil fell and the US dollar rose.

At the close of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 36.50 points, or 0.17%, to 20,975.78. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.3% to 6120.59, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.1% to 2396.92.

Earlier in the session the S&P 500 climbed to a record 2403.87, while the Nasdaq touched an all-time high of 6,133.00.

Shares of Apple rose 0.6% to an all-time high of $US153.96, sending its market capitalisation above $US800 billion, a first for any US company.

"In the short-term, investors can enjoy this run, but they should start to hedge their positions and look for safety," Christian Magoon, chief executive at Amplify ETFs in Chicago, Illinois, told Reuters.

"Given world events, common sense would say there should be at least average volatility in daily price movement on the S&P 500," he says. "The index seems to be very lethargic."

Mr Magoon isn't alone in his concern.

"Does the lack of fear reflect an exhausted, tired market that believes zero volatility is normal, or is it an example of enormous complacency?" Bill Blain, a strategist at Mint Partners in London, asked in a note to clients, Bloomberg reported.

Also warning against complacency, on the timing of interest rate increases by the Federal Open Market Committee, was Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester.

"It's important for the FOMC to remain very vigilant against falling behind as we continue to make progress on our goals," she said in a speech on Monday in Chicago.

"If we delay too long in taking the next normalisation step and then find ourselves in a situation where the labour market becomes unsustainably tight, price pressures become excessive and we have to move rates up steeply, we could risk a recession," Mester warned.

Oil stocks fall
In the Dow, declines in shares of Chevron and those of Cisco, down 1.6% and 1.1% respectively, outweighed advances in shares of Nike and those of Wal-Mart, recently both up 1%. pe

Energy stocks fell with the price of oil, which dropped 1.2% to $45.88 a barrel. In its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook, the US Energy Information Administration forecast domestic output will rise to a record 9.96 million barrels a day in 2018, up from last month's forecast for 9.9 million barrels.

Meanwhile, shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals soared 23.3% after the company posted its first profit in six quarters and upgraded its full-year earnings outlook.

"Our first quarter performance demonstrates that we are delivering on our commitments," Joseph Papa, Valeant's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"We met our internal expectations, and we are continuing to make progress on our key initiatives, focus on the turnaround of our core businesses and improve internal operating efficiencies."

Not all analysts are convinced the company has turned its business around.

"In reality, Valeant's sales are declining, its leverage ratio has increased, and we think its pipeline is weak," Wells Fargo analyst David Maris said in a note, rating the stock a sell, according to Bloomberg.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the day with a 0.6% gain from the previous close, its highest level since August 2015. France's CAC40 Index added 0.3%, Germany's DAX Index rose 0.4%, while the UK's FTSE 100 Index increased 0.6%.

The global earnings recovery looks "impressive," BlackRock chief investment strategist Richard Turnill wrote in a note, Bloomberg reported. He forecasts more upside in European equities than in their US peers and recommends diversifying geographically in equity portfolios.

(BusinessDesk)