U.S. Stocks Move Mostly Higher Amid Optimism About Earnings

Stocks have moved sharply higher during trading on Monday, with the major averages all showing strong moves to the upside. The advance comes on the heels of the pullback seen over the two previous sessions.

Currently, the major averages are just off their highs of the session. The Dow is up 344.60 points or 1.0 percent at 34,014.89, the Nasdaq is up 166.77 points or 1.2 percent at 13,574.00 and the S&P 500 is up 49.40 points or 1.1 percent at 4,377.18.

The strength on Wall Street partly reflects optimism about the strength of corporate results as earnings season starts to pick up steam.

Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Morgan Stanley (MS), Procter & Gamble (PG), Netflix (NFLX), Tesla (TSLA), AT&T (T) and American Express (AXP) are among the companies due to report their quarterly results this week.

Meanwhile, traders are also looking ahead to the release of reports on retail sales, industrial production, housing starts and existing home sales in the comings days.

In U.S. economic news, the New York Federal Reserve released a report showing a downturn in regional manufacturing activity in the month of October.

The New York Fed said its general business conditions index fell to a negative 4.6 in October from a positive 1.9 in September, with a negative reading indicating a contraction in activity. Economists had expected the index to drop to a negative 7.0.

Transportation stocks have shown a substantial move to the upside on the day, driving the Dow Jones Transportation Average up by 2.9 percent.

Significant strength is also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 2.8 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.

Telecom, brokerage and software stocks are also seeing considerable strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index plunged by 2.0 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slumped by 1.0 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index has climbed by 0.5 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index are both up by 0.4 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved back to the downside following the rebound seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 8.1 basis points at 4.710 percent.

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