Wall Street rises ahead of megacap earnings, presidential election

By Abigail Summerville

(Reuters) -Wall Street rose on Monday ahead of a packed week of earnings from megacap companies and the final stretch before the Nov. 5 election, while sentiment also improved after energy supplies were not disrupted by weekend developments in the Middle East.

Israel’s response over the weekend to an Iranian missile attack this month focused, so far, on missile factories and other sites near Tehran, rather than on refineries or nuclear targets, assuaging some worries about the regional situation.

Wall Street was focused on the week ahead, notably corporate results, with around 169 companies scheduled to report through the week.

That includes the bulk of the “Magnificent Seven” group of megacap technology stocks that have driven Wall Street to all-time highs.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:) rose 0.9%, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:) was up 1% and Apple (NASDAQ:) was 1.3% higher, ahead of their results this week.

Last week, Nvidia (NASDAQ:) surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable company. Investors will look out for AI spending guidance in tech earnings this week.

“The earnings will be important for the guidance that the companies give as to what sort of capital expenditure programs they may implement in the coming year,” said Paul Christopher, head of Global Investment Strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:) also report earnings this week.

At 2:10 p.m., the rose 306.22 points, or 0.73%, to 42,420.62, the S&P 500 gained 24.32 points, or 0.42%, to 5,832.44 and the gained 97.48 points, or 0.53%, to 18,616.08.

The small-cap jumped 1.7%, outperforming major indexes.

“This could be the market looking ahead to a soft landing and expecting small caps to be first out of the gate as they typically are,” Christopher said. “It could also be some element related to the Trump trade but it’s very difficult to disentangle those two.”

The energy sector dropped 0.7% as crude prices plunged 5% on easing supply worries, while financial company shares () led sectoral gains.

Economic data due this week will be crucial for assessment of Federal Reserve policy, most notably Thursday’s Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge.

Focus will also be on the U.S. presidential election, with markets more broadly pricing in a second Donald Trump administration, though the election is expected to be close.

Boeing (NYSE:)’s shares dipped 0.9% after the planemaker launched a stock offering that could raise up to $22 billion in a bid to shore up its finances amid an ongoing worker strike.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 2.01-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 2.17-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 13 new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 91 new highs and 51 new lows.