NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday, giving the Dow and S&P 500 their biggest gains in more than a month, as bank shares jumped ahead of earnings reports later this week.
Industrial, energy and consumer discretionary shares also rose sharply, while S&P utilities and telecommunications - among the market’s recent outperformers - led percentage declines.
The S&P banks index climbed 2.7 percent, registering its biggest daily percentage gain since March 26. The S&P 500 financial index rose 2.3 percent, leading gains among sectors.
JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co and Citigroup Inc are scheduled to report results on Friday, kicking off the second-quarter earnings season in earnest.
“We’re on the eve of what’s going to be a dynamite earnings season,” for the S&P 500 overall, said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.
A stronger economy and plans for more buybacks also are helping bank shares, he said.
Investors may also be shifting their focus for now away from trade tensions between the United States and China. The two countries slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on $34 billion of each other’s goods on Friday.
“The angst going into last Friday was pretty significant, and now, with the realization that we’re here and the world hasn’t come to an end,... the money is falling in,” Hellwig said.
Helping to boost the Dow, Caterpillar Inc rose 4.1 percent. The S&P industrial sector jumped 1.8 percent. Caterpillar and other industrials have been among the hardest hit by recent trade worries.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 320.11 points, or 1.31 percent, to 24,776.59, the S&P 500 gained 24.35 points, or 0.88 percent, to 2,784.17 and the Nasdaq Composite added 67.81 points, or 0.88 percent, to 7,756.20.
