US stocks march higher ahead of tech-heavy earnings week

New York, Oct 26: Stocks shook off an early bout of unsettled trading and marched higher Monday ahead of a heavy week of earnings from big tech companies.
The S&P 500 rose 1 per cent as of 12:03 pm Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 375 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 31,462 and the Nasdaq fell 0.3 per cent.
Bond yields eased back from their multi-year highs. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.21 per cent after moving as high as 4.28 per cent earlier Monday. It reached 4.22 per cent late Friday.
Google’s parent company, along with Facebook’s parent, Amazon and Apple are all reporting their latest financial results this week. They are among the priciest stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 and their earnings this week could mean big moves, up or down, for the broader market.
Several big companies outside of the tech sector are also reporting earnings this week, including Coca-Cola, General Motors and Caterpillar.
Investors are closely reviewing the latest round of corporate earnings to get a better picture of inflation’s impact on different areas of the economy. Prices on everything from clothing to food remain at their highest levels in four decades. That has put pressure on companies to raise prices and cut costs, while squeezing consumers.
The Federal Reserve and central banks around the world have been raising interest rates in an effort to tame inflation.
That has made borrowing more expensive and has also been weighing on expensive stocks, such as big technology companies. Economists and investors are worried that the rate increases could go too far in slowing the economy and push it into a recession.
The US economy is already slowing down and actually contracted during the first half the year. The government will release its third-quarter gross domestic product report on Thursday.
Markets in Europe made solid gains. UK government bonds rallied as Treasury chief Rishi Sunak became assured of becoming the prime minster, replacing Liz Truss, who quit last week after her tax-cutting economic package caused turmoil in financial markets.(AP)