US stocks and the Dow try to snap two-week losing streak

The Dow and the US stock market are rallying Monday, attempting a rebound from recent turbulent trading as well as the first two-week losing streak in more than four months.

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So far, things look promising: The Dow is up 1.4%, or about 380 points, in midday trading while the broader S&P 500 is up 1.7%. The Nasdaq Composite, which fell so much it briefly dropped into correction territory last week, is up 2.4% mid-morning. Correction territory is defined as a 10% drop from the peak.

A choppy September shouldn't come as a surprise, given that it's historically the worst month of the year for the market, according to Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group.

The only thing that's new is that the market weakness came in the first half, rather than the second half of the month.

"Hopefully, in 2020 September is getting it all out of its system early," Hickey said.

M&A optimism seems to be helping investor sentiment on Monday. Oracle and TikTok will become business partners in the United States, and chip-maker Nvidia has agreed to buy British peer ARM for $40 billion from Softbank.

The Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting is on deck for Wednesday, which will likely echo the message of months past: Lower interest rates for longer and more monetary and fiscal intervention will be needed to get out of this crisis. This should be soothing to markets seeing that Congress, which is back in session, hasn't gotten anything done so far.