By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
(Reuters) – U.S. stocks jumped on Monday, bouncing back from the longest weekly losing streak in a year for the S&P 500 and the Dow, with technology, banks and travel-related shares leading the advance.
All 11 major S&P 500 sectors rose, with the S&P 500 financials index’s <.SPSY> 3% jump putting it on track for its best day in two and a half months.
Analysts said the gains could also be attributed to quarter-end rebalancing of investor portfolios as cyclical sectors including financials, industrials <.SLPRCI>, materials <.SPLRCM> and energy <.SPNY> added more than 2% by mid-day trading.
“There is a lack of negative news out there, we are going through a reflex rally,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA in New York.
“Traders tend to gravitate toward those groups that are most oversold because they have the greatest upside potential,” he said, referring to banks and travel-related stocks.
Delta Air Lines <DAL.N>, United Airlines <UAL.O> and American Airlines Group Inc <AAL.O>, rose between 5.7% and 6.2%.
Monday’s bounce also put the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 on course for their biggest two-quarter gains since 2000 and 2009, respectively.
Tech-related shares including Alphabet Inc <GOOGL.O>, Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O>, Apple Inc <AAPL.O> Netflix Inc <NFLX.O> and Tesla Inc <TSLA.O> have surged over this period due to their perceived stability at a time of economic uncertainty.
Still, Wall Street’s three main indexes were on track for their first monthly decline since the coronavirus-led crash in March, and analysts expect trading to remain choppy in the run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential election.
“We don’t see this as the beginning of another big leg up. Between now and the election, you’re going to see a lot of turmoil,” John Traynor, chief investment officer at People’s United Advisors, said.
At 12:52 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was up 543.47 points, or 2.00%, at 27,717.43, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 54.40 points, or 1.65%, at 3,352.86 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was up 144.94 points, or 1.33%, at 11,058.50.
Boeing <BA.N> shares jumped 7.3% after Federal Aviation Administration Chief Steve Dickson said the agency was set to conduct a 737 MAX evaluation flight this week, a key milestone as the planemaker aims for approval to resume flight.
Devon Energy Corp <DVN.N> jumped 11.9% after the oil and gas producer said it would buy peer WPX Energy Inc <WPX.N> for $2.56 billion. WPX Energy shares surged 16.9%.
Uber Technologies Inc <UBER.N> rose 3.7% after the ride-hailing firm won a legal bid to restore its London operating licence, which was taken away over safety concerns.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 6.50-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 3.02-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded five new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 39 new highs and 22 new lows.
(Reporting by Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Arun Koyyur)
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