Investing.com – U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday, after investors shrugged off geopolitical concerns, as U.S. earnings season came into focus, while weaker than expected economic data failed to weigh on sentiment.
The three main U.S. indexes bounced back with a win on Monday, following a negative end to the week last Friday, as the Dow notched nearly 200 points, despite weaker than expected New York area manufacturing data.
The Empire State manufacturing survey fell to a reading of 5.2 April, well below consensus expectations for a reading of 15.
Geopolitical tensions flared over the weekend, after North Korea attempted to fire a ballistic missile on Sunday but it blew up almost immediately.
Financials, mostly banks, led the march higher, after some of America’s biggest banks revealed impressive first quarter results last week, which fuelled expectations for stellar earnings reports from both Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) later this week.
Energy was one of the few sectors that lagged the move higher, after crude prices settled more than 1% on lower.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for May delivery fell by 53 cents to settle at $52.65 a barrel.
In corporate earnings news, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) reported a better than expected earnings report, after the U.S. closing bell today but fell short of subscriber growth expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.90% higher at 20,636. The S&P 500 added 0.86% and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.89% higher at 5856.
S&P 500 ‘movers and shakers’
The top S&P 500 gainers included; NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) up 3.9%, and M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE:MTB) 3.9%, while Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) added 3.9%.
Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) down 10.5%, DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) down 5.8% and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) down 4.1%, were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.