Monday's early afternoon trade: Wall Street up as technology shares hold gains

US stocks were up on Monday as gains in technology stocks helped outweigh losses in healthcare. Six of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with technology index's 0.69 percent gain boosting the broader index. Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia propped up the S&P 500 index. The healthcare index was down 0.08 percent, weighed down by Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic.
President Donald Trump's effort to roll back Obamacare faced growing obstacles on Monday as Republicans remained divided over how to curb the costs of their proposed healthcare bill and prevent millions from losing coverage. "We're going to have to wait and see what the plan B is. With that I think healthcare obviously comes under pressure as it falls into the void of the unknown," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.
Investors were wary of making big bets ahead of the start of the earnings season, with big US banks including J.P Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup reporting on Friday. In a significant victory for the banking industry, the Fed late last month approved plans from the 34 largest US banks to use extra capital for stock buybacks, dividends and other purposes.
"I think that's very reflective of the fact that you've got a market that's looking ahead to catalysts and probably not going to react much in front of them," Hogan said. "When the market takes a wait-and-see attitude, the markets tend to react like this." The three major indexes are trading close to record levels, boosted by strong economic data and robust corporate performance in the first quarter.
Markets closed on a high on Friday after a better-than-expected payrolls report gave investors more confidence in the strength of the US economy. The dollar climbed to a two-month high against the Japanese yen on Monday as a robust jobs data propped up US Treasury yields. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's semi-annual testimony is the key highlight of this week for investors looking for cues on further rate hikes. She will testify on Wednesday and Thursday.
At 12:31 pm ET (16:31 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 23.12 points, or 0.11 percent, at 21,437.46, the S&P 500 was up 4.91 points, or 0.20 percent, at 2,430.09 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 23.83 points, or 0.39 percent, at 6,176.91. Amazon.com Inc shares rose as much as 2 percent to $998.46 ahead of its popular Prime Day shopping festival. United Health was down 0.33 percent at $187.34 after the President Trump's plan to replace Obamacare continued to face obstacles.
Abercrombie & Fitch shares were down 21.3 percent at $9.56 after the teen apparel retailer terminated discussion on a potential deal following a review. ClubCorp shares were up 30 percent at $17.08 after the owner of private golf and country clubs got a takeover offer from private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange by 1,611 to 1,213. On the Nasdaq, 1,521 issues fell and 1,234 advanced.