Investing.com - U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday, as market sentiment improved following the previous week's broad sell-off due to concerns over the health of Portugal's banking sector.
During early U.S. trade, the Dow 30 gained 0.59%, the S&P 500 advanced 0.49%, while the NASDAQ Composite rose 0.35%.
Concerns over the fiscal stability of Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo fuelled a sharp selloff in markets on Thursday, amid fears over the risk of contagion. Concerns eased after Portugal’s central bank said Friday it was satisfied that the lender is able to fulfill its capital requirements.
Traders were awaiting fresh indications on the future direction of monetary policy after last week’s minutes of the Federal Reserve's June meeting revealed little new information on when rates could start to increase.
In the financial sector, Citigroup (NYSE:C) saw shares surge 3.57% as the lender and U.S. authorities were set to announce a $7 billion agreement later Monday to end probes of the bank’s sales of mortgage-backed bonds.
Citigroup also reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings.
Aecom Technology (NYSE:ACM) added to gains, up 0.96%, as it was said to have agreed to acquire URS Corporation (NYSE:URS), up 7.54%, for about $4 billion to gain new services in markets including oil and gas. The engineering and construction-management company had initially been targeted by activist hedge fund Jana Partners LLC.
In similar news, Bloomberg reported that Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL)'s $3.8 billion purchase of Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE:KOG) will create the dominant crude-oil producer in the northern Great Plains, the richest U.S. shale region.
Shares in Whiting Petroleum soared 5.68% at the open of the U.S. trading session, while Kodiak climbed 5.76%.
On the downside, AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) tumbled 1.20% amid reports the drugmaker moved a step closer to buying Shire (LONDON:SHP) after the Dublin-based company said it is willing to back a fifth offer of $53.7 billion, which would be the biggest pharmaceutical takeover outside of the U.S. this year.
Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were higher. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 gained 0.88%, France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.76%, Germany's DAX jumped 1.05%, while Britain's FTSE 100 climbed 0.94%.
During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.49%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 advanced 0.88%.