Wall St. up as Fed worries ease

NEW YORK — US stocks rose to more than three-week highs on Monday, recovering much of the losses sustained in a sell-off earlier this month, as a decline in Treasury yields assuaged investor concerns about rising interest rates and refocused attention on economic growth.

All three major indexes rose more than 1%. The S& P 500 is now just 3.2% below its peak on Jan. 26. The CBOE Volatility Index also dipped slightly to 15.8, though it remains above levels seen before the S&P’s peak.

The US 10-year Treasury note yield eased to 2.8642%, slipping from a four-year high it hit last week. On Friday, the Federal Reserve said it expected economic growth to remain steady and saw no serious risks on the horizon that might alter its planned pace of interest rate hikes.

“It provides some relief that yields aren’t just going straight up,” said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at SunTrust Advisory Services in Atlanta.

“Overall, earnings numbers continue to move higher. Investors still have confidence in the global economy.”

The major indexes fell from late-January peaks on concerns that rising inflation could cause the Fed to raise rates more than three times this year, as its previous statements indicated.

Investors will scrutinize testimony starting on Tuesday from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell who faces questions from both houses of the US Congress in his first major set piece since he took over from Janet Yellen this month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 399.28 points or 1.58% to 25,709.27; the S&P 500 gained 32.3 points or 1.18% to 2,779.60; and the Nasdaq Composite added 84.07 points or 1.15% to 7,421.46.

Among the leading S& P 500 sectors were technology, which gained 1.6%; industrials, which rose 1.4%; and financials, which added 1.5%. The broad gains across those cyclical sectors reflect investors’ focus on economic strength, Mr. Lerner said.

Qualcomm was up 5.8% after the chipmaker urged Broadcom to enter into price negotiations for the first time on Broadcom’s $117-billion offer for the company.

Berkshire Hathaway gained 4% after Warren Buffett said his conglomerate, which is sitting on $116 billion of cash, is “more inclined” to repurchase stock than pay dividends as a means to use excess cash.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2.04 to one; on Nasdaq, a 1.91to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S& P 500 posted 31 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 105 new highs and 36 new lows. —