STORY: U.S. stocks gained ground Monday with the Dow and S&P 500 rising fractionally but notching record closing highs, while the Nasdaq climbed a quarter of one percent. Shares of technology companies and Walmart advanced. The retail giant rose three percent as it prepares to join the Nasdaq 100 index next week, a shift that could draw in billions of dollars from passive index funds.Investors brushed aside concerns about the U.S. Justice Department's criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, ostensibly focused on comments he made to Congress about a building renovation project.Powell called the move a "pretext" to gain more influence over interest rates that President Donald Trump has pressed to cut sharply since he returned to office.Investors are looking ahead to the fourth-quarter U.S. earnings season, which unofficially begins Tuesday with results from JPMorgan Chase and other big banks.Todd Ahlsten, chief investment officer with Parnassus Investments says he expects corporate profits to remain solid.“You know, the first thing is earnings growth looks really strong. We look at the S&P and as of today, it looks like it's slated for 14 to 15% earnings growth. And so that's good. Number 2 is while the AI, Magnificent Seven, part of those earnings, seems still positioned to grow high teens this year, we still see a broadening this year of the S&P, shall you call it, 493. And that should be a positive as the earnings growth strengthens to low double digits for the remainder of the S&P. So the earnings picture looks pretty solid.”Other stocks on the move included Abercrombie & Fitch which plunged nearly 18% after the retailer lowered its annual sales outlook.It was one of several retailers that indicated sales during the key holiday quarter were affected by cautious discretionary spending.That impacted the stocks of other chains like Macy’s which fell more than 5%.