NEW YORK: Wall Street jumped on Monday as hopes of more fiscal stimulus helped the three main indexes recover from a sharp fall in the previous session, while investors awaited updates on the severity of President Donald Trump's Covid-19 symptoms.
Doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are treating Trump with a steroid that is normally used only in the most severe cases. Still, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Trump's medical team will weigh whether he can leave the hospital later in the day.
Ten of the 11 major S&P indexes were up, with energy, the worst performing sector this year, rising 1.8%. Materials and information technology were also among the biggest gainers on the day.
Shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc jumped 7.1% after Trump's physician said he had been treated with an intravenous dose of Regeneron's dual antibody treatment. The wider healthcare index added 1.8%.
"One of his treatments was an experimental drug from Regeneron (and) that's showing that this could be a major component to treatments moving forward for people," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital LLC in New York.
Doubts about the scale of further fiscal aid and a slowing economic recovery have weighed on the S&P 500 recently, with the benchmark index in September logging its worst month since the coronavirus-driven crash earlier this year.
After data last week showed an unexpected slowdown in the domestic manufacturing sector in September, figures on Monday showed activity in the broader services industry pulled above levels that prevailed before the Covid-19 pandemic.
At 12:55 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.31%, the S&P 500 was up 1.42% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.86%.
Heavyweight tech-related stocks including Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp were up between 1.4% and 2.6% after weighing heavily on the Nasdaq on Friday. The S&P banking subindex added 1.8% as the US Treasury 30-year yield hit its highest since late August.
Real estate - considered a defensive play - was the only S&P sector in the red.
MyoKardia Inc surged 57.8% after Bristol Myers Squibb Co said it would buy the company for about $13 billion. Shares of Bristol Myers rose 0.3%.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 2.95-to-1 on the NYSE and 3.19-to-1 on the Nasdaq. The S&P index recorded 23 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 95 new highs and 11 new lows.
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