Stocks gain as fresh earnings awaited By Reuters

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks rose to kick off the trading week on Monday, led by gains in financial and technology shares as investors looked toward the next round of quarterly results as earnings season gathers speed.

Companies scheduled to report earnings this week include Tesla (NASDAQ:) and Netflix (NASDAQ:), while more big banks in the form of Bank of America (NYSE:), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) are also on the docket to post results, following reports from peers such as JP Morgan and Citigroup (NYSE:) last week.

Investors will be paying attention to company outlooks, with earnings for the quarter expected to decline 8.1%, according to Refinitiv data, a bigger decline than the 5.7% fall expected at the start of the month.

“Obviously, we are about to get all these (earnings) reports but it feels to me earnings are going to be good and at the end of the day, how do you value stocks – based on the earnings and dividends,” said Stephen Massocca, senior vice president at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco.

“By and large, the market in its totality continues to be reasonably priced if not kind of cheap. My bigger concern going forward is the Fed is going to start doing things it doesn’t need to do to win the inflation battle but will ultimately now really start to hurt the economy.”

Equities have rallied recently, with the and Nasdaq climbing to 15-month highs as economic data has pointed to a resilient economy, with inflation cooling and a solid labor market.

The rose 92.24 points, or 0.27%, to 34,601.27, the S&P 500 gained 17.05 points, or 0.38%, to 4,522.47 and the added 118.64 points, or 0.84%, to 14,232.35.

Tesla gained 2.63% after the company said on Saturday it had built its first Cybertruck, after two years of delays.

In contrast, Ford Motor (NYSE:) tumbled 5.37% after the automaker cut the price of its F-150 Lightning trucks, the latest salvo in a deepening price war among electric vehicle makers. Peers General Motors (NYSE:) and Rivian lost 2.91% and 3.47%, respectively.

Apple (NASDAQ:) advanced 1.57% after Morgan Stanley raised its target price on the iPhone maker.

Bank shares recovered from Friday’s losses, with the S&P 500 bank index up 1.96% and the KBW regional bank index gained 2.47%.

Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:) rose 3.70% after Microsoft (NASDAQ:) said it has signed an agreement to keep “Call of Duty” on PlayStation following its acquisition.

In addition, Microsoft was granted a two-month pause of its appeal over Britain’s block against the acquisition to give the parties more time to reach an agreement.

AT&T (NYSE:) slumped 6.71% to a 30-year low after Citi downgraded the telecom operator over risks tied to lead cables left buried in the United States. Verizon (NYSE:) shares dropped 7.59%.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.52-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.95-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 53 new 52-week highs and 4 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 137 new highs and 67 new lows.