Tech and financial stocks help drive US stocks higher

Associated Press

Stocks marched broadly higher on Wall Street in early trading today, building on solid gains for the market after a rally late last week.

Technology stocks accounted for a big share of the gains after the U.S. gave Chinese telecom giant Huawei another 90 days to buy equipment from American suppliers. Chipmaker Nvidia rose 4.8 percent.

Financial stocks also rose as bond prices headed lower, sending yields higher.

That's a reversal from much of August, when the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China prompted investors to seek the safety of U.S. government bonds, sending yields sharply lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 1.60 percent from 1.54 percent late Friday.

Stocks are coming off their third weekly loss in a row as investors try to parse conflicting signals on the U.S. economy and determine whether a recession is on the horizon.

Last week, many stock indexes around the world struck their lowest levels this year, before a late rally suggested some calm was returning to the markets in what is a traditionally low-volume time of the year. Nonetheless, analysts say the concerns that drove last week's sell-off could resurface at any time.

"Markets actually ended last week on a relatively good note so what we may actually be witnessing right now is traders relishing the blissful trade war silence rather than anything more optimistic," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.

The S&P 500 was up 1 percent as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern Time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 280 points as of 11:17 a.m. The Nasdaq climbed 1.1%.

Major stock indexes in Europe also rose.