These 2 Stocks Led Wall Street Higher on Monday

Investors had a positive mindset coming out of the weekend, and it showed in big gains for major market benchmarks. Only the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.93%) missed out on a 1% gain, and the rise in the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 1.20%) and S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.06%) helped build some upward momentum that bullish investors really wanted to see.

Data source: Yahoo! Finance.

A couple of stocks posted outsized gains on Monday to lift the mood. Snap (SNAP 11.98%) got the bigger percentage move, but Charles Schwab (SCHW 4.66%) investors were probably happier to see the news that prompted its stock to climb higher as well.

Here are all the details you need about both Snap and Schwab and some thoughts about what the future might bring.

Snap is looking to snap back

Shares of Snap rose 12% on Monday. The parent of social media platform Snapchat saw its stock soar after reports of an internal memorandum to employees that contained more favorable business metrics than many had expected.

Snap could have more than 475 million daily active users by 2024, according to reports from The Verge. That’s roughly 6% higher than those following the social media stock were anticipating, and some projections for other business metrics were similarly upbeat.

To be fair, Snap’s stock has languished for most of the past two years. Shares surged during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic as use of social media more broadly skyrocketed. Since then, though, rising competition within the industry has made it harder for Snap to stand out.

The key to Snap’s future is only partially to attract an audience. It’s just as important that the social media company be able to monetize its user base in order to generate more consistent financial results. Until that happens, Snap will likely struggle to regain much of the ground it has lost since its 2021 highs.

Schwab keeps making progress

Meanwhile, shares of Charles Schwab were up nearly 5% on Monday. The brokerage company reported its third-quarter financial results, and while the numbers weren’t entirely pretty, shareholders seemed relieved that Schwab has made progress through difficult times.

Many key metrics from Charles Schwab were weaker than they were in the previous year’s third quarter. Revenue fell 16% year over year to $4.61 billion, and adjusted net income was down more than 30% to $1.52 billion. That produced adjusted earnings of $0.77 per share, and although that was down from year-ago levels, it was better than many had expected to see from Schwab.

Schwab did have some positive things to say about the environment in the capital markets. CEO Walt Bettinger said that Schwab pulled in $46 billion in core net new assets, including $27 billion in just the month of September alone, when it finished converting another group of clients from the recently acquired TD Ameritrade. Although some of those former TD Ameritrade customers have chosen to take their business elsewhere, Schwab reported strong results from its own legacy customers, including $248 billion in core asset inflows in the first nine months of 2023.

Schwab has faced some challenges because its banking subsidiary has seen deposit outflows as customers seek out higher-yielding investments. Yet with signs that the trend could be coming to an end, Schwab investors are hopeful that the brokerage giant’s core strength will start shining through once again.