NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stocks hit a two-week high on Monday with bank shares leading the drive higher ahead of earnings reports from the biggest U.S. lenders later in the week, while sterling took at hit after another British cabinet resignation.
The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS, which tracks shares in 47 countries, rose 0.80 percent. Wall Street notched a third straight day of gains as investors continued to take solace from Friday’s balanced U.S. payrolls report, which overshadowed the tit-for-tat trade battle underway between Washington and Beijing.
The S&P 500 Index .SPX gained 0.80 percent, led by a nearly 3 percent surge in bank stocks .SPXBK, their biggest daily rise since March. A pickup in bond yields and optimism about the coming earnings-reporting season with JPMorgan (JPM.N), Wells Fargo (WFC.N) and Citigroup (C.N) due to report on Friday were seen as the primary drivers to the upside.
Overall, S&P 500 profits appear on track for another quarter of greater than 20 percent year-over-year growth, according to Thomson Reuters estimates. That has helped blunt concerns about the deteriorating global trade scene after the United States and China slapped tariffs on some $34 billion of each other’s goods on Friday.
“The market is anticipating a very good earnings season and ignoring any trade issues,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.
Bank shares also found support from the first notable uptick in U.S. Treasury yields in two weeks. The yield on the 10-year note US10YT=RR rose 3 basis points to nearly 2.86 percent.
European and Asian stocks ended in the black as
