Investors shrug off tariffs, stocks gain

Stocks rose and Treasuries fell as a lull in the trade war gave investors room to focus on the start of the earnings season.

The S&P 500 Index gained for a fourth day, the longest streak since the beginning of June. PepsiCo Inc. jumped more than 4 percent after reporting better-than-forecast profit, while banks fell ahead of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. results Friday. The Russell 2000 Index declined, ending a fiveday rally.

The dollar reversed earlier gains as the euro pared losses. Treasury yields advanced for a second session and West Texas crude held at around $74 a barrel.

“The last couple days people have said, ‘Well, the tariffs went into effect on Friday, the world didn’t end,’” JP Gravitt, chief executive officer and market strategist for Market Realist, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters. “Stocks are directionless, they just want the numbers. They need the numbers right now because there’s a lot of stuff out there that we don’t know.”

With fewer trade-war headlines rattling markets since Friday’s imposition of U.S. and Chinese tariffs, investors turn their attention to earnings season in the hope that strong results can complement a recent run of positive economic data.

Elsewhere, a basket of emerging-market currencies gained, while Turkey’s lira climbed after yesterday’s end-of-day tumble as traders came to terms with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan latest power grab.