US: Stocks jump on earnings optimism

US STOCKS rose sharply on Monday (Oct 16), with traders looking ahead to a flurry of high-profile company earnings this week.

Major banks including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs will publish their third-quarter results early Tuesday, with other big US firms including Netflix and United Airlines to follow later in the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9 per cent to 33,984.54, while the broad-based S&P 500 closed up 1.1 per cent at 4,373.63.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite index jumped by 1.2 per cent to end the day at 13,567.98.

“On Friday we had some good news but the gains evaporated because traders didn’t want to go long in stocks over the weekend,” Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital told AFP.

“We are seeing that reversal today,” he added.

Among individual stocks, athletic apparel company Lululemon Athletica saw its share price surge 10.3 per cent amid plans for it to join the S&P 500 in New York.

Athletics giant Nike saw its share price jump 2.1 per cent as well.

Despite concerns that fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza could spread to other countries in the crude-rich Middle East, oil prices eased slightly from last week’s highs.

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Meanwhile, the yield on the popular 10-year US Treasury rose once more, reversing some of the decline seen in recent days. AFP