Wall Street rises on Big Tech strength

(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes rose on Monday as growth stocks gained, shrugging off inflation worries in the run up to third-quarter earnings reports from later this week.

FILE PHOTO: A street sign for Wall Street is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., July 19, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Mega-caps Apple Inc, Tesla Inc and Microsoft Corp rose between 0.6% and 1%, with eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes trading higher.

Energy and materials led sectoral gains on the back of surging commodity prices. U.S. oil rose nearly 3% to a seven-year high, feeding into fears of higher inflation, as an energy crisis gripping the major economies showed no sign of easing.

“Inflation looks like it will be here for some time,” said Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at IG.

Graphic: S&P 500 vs Energy,

At 10:09 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 149.94 points, or 0.43%, at 34,896.19, the S&P 500 was up 17.41 points, or 0.40%, at 4,408.75 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 62.08 points, or 0.43%, at 14,641.62.

Earnings season will kick off this week, with JPMorgan Chase & Co reporting on Wednesday, followed by Bank of America Corp, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc on Thursday and Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Friday.

“Any earnings miss will probably be because of supply chain disruptions, not being able to get enough products on the shelf, or having the products in the wrong place or sitting in ports,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Analysts expect a 29.6% year-over-year increase in profit for S&P 500 companies in the third quarter, according to IBES data from Refinitiv as of Friday, down from 96.3% growth in the second quarter.

All of Wall Street’s main indexes logged weekly gains last week, with investors still expecting the Federal Reserve to begin tapering asset purchases later this year.

After data last week showed weaker jobs growth than expected in September, investors are now looking toward inflation and retail sales numbers this week, as well as minutes of the Fed’s last meeting that could confirm that a November tapering was discussed.

Among individual stocks, Southwest Airlines Co slipped 2.9% on a report that it canceled at least 30% of its scheduled flights on Sunday.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.09-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.42-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P index recorded 36 new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 61 new highs and 66 new lows.

U.S. bond markets were shut on Monday on account of a U.S. federal holiday.

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