Energy firms lead stock advance

Energy companies notched the biggest gains Monday after the price of U.S. crude oil closed above $59 a barrel for the first time since November. Smallercompany stocks fared better than the rest of the market.

The S&P 500 gained 10.46 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,832.94. The benchmark index is now up 13 percent for 2019 so far, which is a bigger gain than it has had in four of the past five full years.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 65.23 points, or 0.3 percent, to 25,914.10.

The Nasdaq composite added 25.95 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,714.48. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks picked up 10.39 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,563.93.

Financial, consumer goods and technology stocks accounted for much of the gains. Goldman Sachs rose 2.1 percent, Advance Auto Parts climbed 4.4 percent and Microsoft added 1.4 percent.

Those gains outweighed losses in communications and health care sector companies. Facebook slid 3.3 percent and Boston Scientific dropped 5.6 percent.

Stocks were riding the momentum from last week, when the S&P 500 resumed its torrid start to the year after a brief, five-day stumble. The index is back to within 3.5 percent of its record high, set in September, after clawing back all of its drop from December.

The market’s latest gains come as investors wait for a resolution of the costly trade war between the U.S. and China. After several weeks of negotiations, it’s not clear how close the two sides are to an agreement. A meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to formalize a deal might be pushed back to June, according to some news reports.

Traders were also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate policy update on Wednesday.

“In many ways, the market is in limbo,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. “And in the meantime, [investors] are waiting for some sort of agreement on the trade talks as well as the Fed.”

Major stock indexes in Europe finished mostly higher Monday.

U.S. stocks have had a strong showing this year, with all the major indexes showing a gain of at least 11 percent.

One key to the recent rally has been the belief that the Fed will slow its pace of increases for interest rates. The worry in December was that the central bank would raise rates too fast in the face of a slowing global economy and choke off growth. The Fed will meet to discuss interest-rate policy this week, with an announcement scheduled for Wednesday, but economists expect it to announce no change to rates.

Monday’s upward swing in oil prices came after OPEC canceled a meeting that had been scheduled for next month. The move means that a production cut imposed by the oil cartel in January remains in place, at least until the cartel agrees to meet again.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 1 percent to settle at $59.09 a barrel, while Brent crude gained 0.6 percent to close at $67.54 a barrel.

Energy stocks got a boost from the pickup in oil prices. National Oilwell Varco jumped 6.2 percent, Halliburton gained 3.2 percent and Marathon Petroleum rose 2.7 percent.

Investors also bid up shares in Worldpay after Fidelity National Information Services agreed to buy the payment processor for about $35 billion in stock and cash. Including Worldpay’s debt, Fidelity National valued the deal at $43 billion.

Worldpay’s U.S.-listed shares jumped 10 percent. Fidelity National, also called FIS, slipped 0.7 percent.