Stocks were solidly higher Monday, and investors cheered a strong dose of positive earnings reports as well as economic data that showed the US economy is growing.
The S&P 500 index was up 0.6 per cent as of 10:05 a.m. Eastern.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.9 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.2 per cent.
The S&P is adding to the 5.2 per cent gains from April, its best month since November 2020, when President Joe Biden was elected. It logged a gain of about 28 per cent between November and April.
Among the biggest gainers on the first trading day of the month were clothing retailer Gap Inc., which jumped 7 per cent, and aircraft manufacturer Mohawk Industries, which soared more than 9 per cent.
More than half of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported their results, which show earnings growth of 54per cent percent so far, according to FactSet.
It's another busy week for earnings, which will results from drugmakers Eli Lilly, Merck, Pepsi, Colgate-Palmolive, the railroad CSX and drugstore giant CVS. Investors will also get April's jobs report on Friday.
Shares of Verizon Communications were up 1per cent after the company announced it would sell off the remnants of Yahoo! and AOL into a new company backed by private equity firm Apollo Global Management.
Verizon bought Yahoo and AOL's media assets about six years ago in an effort to compete with Google and Facebook, but the effort never panned out and Verizon returned its focus to its traditional wireless cell operations.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was up 2 per cent after the billionaire investor named his successor after years of speculation.
Greg Abel, who runs Berkshire Hathaway's non-insurance business, will step into the CEO role when Buffett retires.
On the economic front, a report on US manufacturing activity in April came in below economists' expectations, but still was strong for the month.
The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index came in at 60.7 for April, compared with the 65.0 reading that was expected.
However that figure is still well above the 50-point mark that indicates expanding manufacturing activity.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note slipped to 1.61per cent on the data.
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