US stocks surge with main focus on corporate earnings

Wall Street’s main indexes advanced on Monday as investors awaited key economic data and major corporate earnings this week for clues on the U.S. economy and monitoring the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Long-dated US Treasury yields gained as the United States sought to prevent an escalation in tensions, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken arriving in Israel for talks after top US officials warned the conflict could worsen.

Results from large banks Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, EV maker Tesla, and video-streaming pioneer Netflix are due this week. Megacaps Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, and Amazon.com rose more than 1% each, while Apple dipped 0.6% on a report that the company’s iPhones were off to a disappointing start in China.

Investors also await economic data including retail sales for September and the Philly Fed Business Index for October later this week. Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker will speak later in the day, while Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is due to speak on Thursday.

Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee said that the slowdown in US inflation was a trend rather than a momentary blip. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 225.11 points, or 0.67%, at 33,895.40, the S&P 500 (.SPX) was up 23.95 points, or 0.55%, at 4,351.73, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 76.83 points, or 0.57%, at 13,484.06. Industries and consumer discretionary were among the top gainers across the major S&P 500 sectors, while utilities and real estate declined.