San Francisco Chronicle

Stocks rise on Wall Street amid latest hopes for virus vaccine

- By Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga are Associated Press writers.

More encouragin­g news on the developmen­t of coronaviru­s vaccines and treatments helped power stocks higher on Wall Street Monday, as the market clawed back most of its losses from last week.

The S& P 500 index rose 0.6%, led by banks, energy and industrial companies, sectors that have been beaten down during the pandemic. Health care and technology stocks, which traders have bid up sharply this year, closed lower. Treasury yields mostly rose, another sign of optimism among investors.

The latest vaccine developmen­ts are helping to raise hopes that some normalcy will eventually be restored to everyday life and the economy. It is also tempering lingering concerns over rising virus cases in the U. S. and new government restrictio­ns on businesses aimed at limiting the spread.

“Investors continue to embrace and see the optimism in the developmen­t of vaccines, providing light at the end of the tunnel and multiple choices on how to get there,” said Adam Taback, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank.

The S& P 500 rose 20.05 points to 3,577.59. The benchmark index, which climbed to an alltime high a week ago, recouped nearly threefourt­hs of its decline from last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 327.79 points, or 1.1%, to 29,591.27. The technology­heavy Nasdaq composite added 25.66 points, or 0.2%, to 11,880.63.

Roughly 73% of the stocks in the S& P 500 rose. In another signal that investors were feeling confident, the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks outpaced the broader market, picking up 32.96 points, or 1.8%, to 1,818.30.

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