US: Stocks rise as trade fears recede

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks rose solidly for a third straight session on Monday, with beaten-down banking shares gaining as investors again brushed aside trade war worries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.3 per cent to 24,776.59.

The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.9 per cent to 2,784.19, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also advanced 0.9 per cent to 7,756.20.

Analysts attributed the increases in part to positive sentiment from Friday's US jobs report, which suggested the economy remained on track but not so strong as to spur even faster Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

But Monday's gains also suggested that investors had adopted a rosier attitude towards trade clashes involving the United States and key partners including China and the European Union.

"The message would appear to be that markets are not concerned about a full-fledged trading war breaking out," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare, adding that the market is also "fickle."

"You are one tweet away from all of this being turned on its ear," he said.

Big Dow gainers included Boeing, up 2.2 per cent, and Caterpillar, up 4.1 per cent. Both companies are major exporters to China.

Large banks JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs climbed about three per cent as the yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond climbed. Banks have underperformed other sectors much of the year, suggesting Monday's move was due to bargain-hunting.

Twitter dropped 5.5 per cent on concerns the social media's efforts to crack down on fake accounts would affect its user base and potentially its finances.

AFP