Stocks up as trade war angst recedes

Never mind the trade war. Here comes earnings season.

U.S. stocks climbed with other markets Monday as concerns about trade tensions between the U.S. and the rest of the world took a back seat. The calendar for upcoming weeks is full of companies telling investors how much profit they made in the spring, and the expectation is for another quarter of gangbusters growth.

That and Friday’s report showing U.S. hiring remains strong have helped to support markets despite the United States and China — the world’s two largest economies — imposing dueling tariffs on each other at the end of last week.

It’s the third straight day that the S&P 500 has climbed at least 0.8%. It follows a rocky few months when some investors sold stocks assuming that a fullblown, harmful trade war was a certainty. Others still expect negotiated settlements to be the final result.

Across the S&P 500, analysts are calling for 19% growth in earnings per share from a year earlier, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Lower tax rates and stronger revenues are helping to drive the gains.

The growth may be peaking, however. Perhaps more important than the numbers for last quarter will be what chief executives say about how much the trade tensions will hurt their profits later in the year.

Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are among this week’s headliners, and all three plan to report their results Friday.

Bank stocks were among the market’s biggest winners Monday. Financial stocks in the S&P 500 jumped 2.3%, the largest gain among the 11 sectors in the index.

They rose with Treasury yields, which can translate into bigger profits for banks by enabling them to charge higher rates for mortgages and other loans. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.86% from 2.82%.

Higher interest rates can cause buyers to move away from high-dividend stocks because they become more interested in bonds. That led to losses for telecom and real estate investment trust shares.

The dollar rose to 110.82 yen from 110.45 yen. The euro inched up to $1.1749 from $1.1745. The British pound fell to $1.325 from $1.3266.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 5 cents to $73.85 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 96 cents to $78.07 a barrel.

Heating oil rose 3 cents to $2.20 a gallon. Wholesale gasoline rose 4 cents to $2.15 a gallon. Natural gas fell 3 cents to $2.83 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold rose $3.80 to settle at $1,259.60.