Wall Street focus turns to earnings

US stocks closed higher on Monday, with the biggest boosts from technology and health care sectors as investors were optimistic about earnings season and appeared less worried about US-led missile attacks in Syria.

NEW YORK — US stocks closed higher on Monday, with the biggest boosts from technology and health care sectors as investors were optimistic about earnings season and appeared less worried about US-led missile attacks in Syria.

The weekend’s air strikes marked the biggest intervention yet by Western countries against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his ally Russia, which is facing further economic sanctions over its role in the conflict.

Stocks had ended lower on Friday on worries about Syria.

‘A LOT OF ANTICIPATION’

But investors seemed less anxious about the potential for retaliation from Russia, an Assad ally, since there was none at the weekend.

“Geopolitical conditions calmed,” said Tim Ghriskey, Chief Investment Strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.

“There’s a lot of anticipation about very strong earnings growth in the quarter. That may be attracting traders and even longer-term investors back into the market.”

Netflix shares gained around 7% after the market closed following its quarterly report. Its subscriber growth beat analyst expectations. It had ended the regular session down 1.2%.

S& P 500 companies are expected to report an 18.6% jump in first- quarter profit, on average, the biggest rise in seven years, according to Thomson Reuters data.

BOOST

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 212.9 points or 0.87% to 24,573.04; the S& P 500 gained 21.54 points or 0.81% to 2,677.84; and the Nasdaq Composite added 49.64 points or 0.70% to 7,156.29.

The S&P 500’s technology sector was the biggest boost to the benchmark on a weighted basis, with a 0.70% increase, followed by the health care index which rose 0.80%.

UnitedHealth provided the second-biggest boost to the S&P from a single stock a day ahead of its earnings report with a 2.7% gain.

Microsoft Corp. was the biggest positive contributor with a 1.2% gain, on a weighted basis.

Merck rose 2.6% after it presented positive data on its cancer drug Keytruda, also boosting the S&P health care index.

Shares of optical components makers, including those of Acacia Communications and Oclaro, took a beating after Reuters reported that the US government was banning American companies from selling components to Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp. Acacia slumped almost 36%, compared with a 15.2% drop for Oclaro.

JB Hunt Transport Services jumped 6.2% after the trucking company’s profit topped estimates.

Bank of America rose 0.44% after a bigger-than-expected increase in quarterly profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.70- to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.82-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S& P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 68 new highs and 36 new lows.

On US exchanges about 5.74 billion shares changed hands, in the lowest volume session so far this year.

Monday’s trading compared with the 7.03 billion average for the last 20 sessions. —