Monday's markets ended higher as countries around the world, including the U.S., tentatively pushed toward reopening, and investors prepared for American heavyweight earnings results.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average made a decent climb for a fourth day, wrapping up the session up 358 points, or 1.52 percent, to 24,133, the S&P 500 rose 1.49 percent and the Nasdaq moved up 1.12 percent.
Investors have braced for a barrage of first quarter profit results and monitored continuing crude oil decline. Despite concerns from public health experts that these measures could be premature, the states of Alaska, Georgia, and Oklahoma began softening restrictions on companies.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo disclosed that the state may start reopening the economy in certain places with some measures after May 15. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated that he was anticipating the country's economy to normalize in the months after June, once the lockdowns have been lifted.
CNBC market analysts claim that they have discovered what drives the stock market, and it is all about COVID-19 research and vaccines. But "Bond King" Jeffrey Gundlach has quite a different take on the development.
The risk-on recovery, he said, has been somewhat surprising considering that crude oil prices have once again nosedived. As large numbers of oil tankers stack up off California's coasts, a fall of 23 percent has prices returning to around $13 a barrel.
For the second straight day, the US benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose, raising the rate-sensitive financial index by 3 per cent. Technology stocks have provided the top boosts for the three key indexes.
While trillions of dollars in stimulus have helped the S&P 500 rebound roughly 30 percent from lows last month, market observers claim that rising economic harm may limit additional growth unless progress is made on disease treatment.
In Asian trading, stocks had scored more points after the Bank of Japan vowed to buy more bonds to support stimulus measures. The US and Europe's central banks will meet in the coming days.
The Federal Reserve will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday and with interest rates hitting near zero the central bank may not initiate any policy efforts. An announcement by the Fed may come Wednesday afternoon. The Fed's guidance will be among the main agenda at Wall Street.
To date, 122 S&P 500 members have already reported first-quarter figures, with aggregate earnings off 22.7 per cent. The combined forecast of FactSet, adding previously published performance and forecasts for the remainder, expects only muted rally of a 16 percent decrease in income after all results are counted.
