U.S. Stocks Holding On To Strong Gains After Early Advance

(RTTNews) - After an early move to the upside, stocks continue to turn in a strong performance in afternoon trading on Monday. The advance on the day comes on the heels of the substantial volatility seen over the past few sessions.

Currently, the major averages are off their highs of the session but holding on to strong gains. The Dow is up 573.43 points or 1.8 percent at 31,835.33, the Nasdaq is up 129.66 points or 1.1 percent at 11,484.27 and the S&P 500 is up 58.77 points or 1.5 percent at 3,960.13.

The strength on Wall Street comes as traders continue to pick up stocks at reduced levels, extending the recovery seen late in the trading session last Friday.

The S&P 500 climbed well off its worst levels to end the day roughly flat after tumbling more than 20 percent from January's record closing high, which is seen as signaling a bear market.

Buying interest may also have been generated in reaction to news the financial hub of Shanghai has lifted some of its COVID-19 restrictions and U.S. President Joe Biden said he was weighing cutting tariffs on Chinese goods.

"I am considering it. We did not impose any of those tariffs. They were imposed by the last administration and they're under consideration," Biden said.

Banking stocks have helped to lead the rebound on Wall Street, with the KBW Bank Index spiking by 4.5 percent on the day.

Financial giant JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is surging by 7.1 percent after ending the previous session at its lowest closing level in over a year. The rebound comes after JPMorgan said a key performance target may be achieved this year.

Substantial strength also remains visible among oil service stocks, as reflected by the 3.3 percent jump by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index.

The rally by oil service stocks comes even though the price of crude for July delivery is edging down $0.11 to $110.17 a barrel.

Steel stocks are also turning in a strong performance on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Steel Index up by 2.6 percent.

Brokerage, telecom and natural gas stocks are also seeing significant strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Among individual stocks, shares of VMWare (VMW) are moving sharply higher following reports the cloud computing company is in advanced talks to be acquired by chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO).

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped by 1.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index surged by 1.7 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index shot up by 1.4 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved notably lower, giving back ground after trending higher over the past few sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 7 basis points at 2.857 percent.