Investing.com – Wall Street traded higher on Monday as market players opted to look past geopolitical tension and waited for an appearance from Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen later in the session and the unofficial kickoff for earnings later in the week.
At 11:06AM ET (15:06GMT), the Dow Jones gained 67 points, or 0.33%, the S&P 500 rose 6 points, or 0.25%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded up 13 points, or 0.23%.
On the geopolitical front, tensions over Syria mount as Russia and Iran say American air strikes crossed the line, while the U.S. ambassador to the UN says removing Bashar al-Assad is a top priority for the White House.
As developments over Syria evolve, G7 foreign ministers are gathering in Lucca for a two meeting as the Italian host Angelino Alfano suggested that the U.S. airstrikes offered a window of opportunity to search for a political solution to the country’s civil war.
With regard to U.S. trade policy, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping made apparent progress on future trade agreements.
China is to offer concessions to the U.S., including better market access for financial sector investments and ending a ban on U.S. beef imports to help avert a trade war, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Top U.S. officials said that the two leaders agreed to enter a 100-day plan for trade talks in order to hammer out the details.
With no major economic reports due on Monday, markets looked ahead to an appearance from Yellen. The Fed chair was scheduled for a discussion with the dean of the University of Michigan’s school of public policy at 4:10PM ET (20:10GMT).
Her comments will be monitored closely for any new insight on policy and the timing of when the Fed will next raise interest rates, particularly as an audience question and answer period is scheduled along with another Q&A via Twitter.
Although the Fed’s next policy decision is set to be announced on May 3, markets aren’t pricing in a rate hike until the June 14 decision with odds at around 62%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Yellen may well be asked about the U.S. central bank's plan to start shrinking its massive balance sheet, which ballooned to $4.5 trillion in wake of the financial crisis.
The Fed has not yet offered details on how it would reduce its holdings of Treasuries and mortgages but said it would like to start “later this year”.
On the company front, Wall Street's first-quarter earnings season kicks off this week, with major U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) all reporting Thursday.
The financial sector is projected to post a 15.4% profit gain, second only to energy among S&P sectors, with revenue rising 7.5%.
For the broader market, earnings are forecast to grow 10.1% from a year ago, the best since 2014, while sales growth is expected to jump by 7.5%, the best since 2011, according to Thomson Reuters’ data.
In Monday’s business news, U.S. wireless carrier AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) said on Monday it would buy Straight Path Communications Inc (NYSE:STRP), a holder of licenses to wireless spectrum, for $1.25 billion.
Swift Transportation (NYSE:SWFT) and rival Knight Transportation (NYSE:KNX) announced a stock swap merger. Shares in the U.S. trucking firms soared 23% and 14%, respectively.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) reportedly topped more than five million monthly advertisers.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) also made positive headlines as an analyst upgrade pushed it into first place as the largest of U.S. automakers by market capitalization.
Meanwhile, oil rose continued to move higher on Monday, supported by another shutdown at Libya's largest oilfield and heightened tension over Syria following the U.S. missile strike.
That was despite a report on increased U.S. drilling activity. Late Friday, data from oil services provider Baker Hughes showed that the number of active rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. rose by 10 to 672. That was the 12th straight weekly increase to the highest number since August 2015.
U.S. crude futures gained 1.00% to $52.76 by 11:07AM ET (15:07GMT), while Brent oil traded up 0.83% to $55.70.