After an extended weekend helped put a troubled week behind them, U.S. equities and stock exchange traded funds climbed Monday, with greater optimism over the upcoming earnings announcements strengthening traders’ outlook.
The S&P 500 Index, along with related funds including the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV) and Vanguard 500 Index (NYSEArca: VOO), were up 0.6% Monday after falling off about 1% last week.
U.S. stocks rebounded Monday on signs of economic expansion and signals of improved corporate earnings. Analysts and market observers are closely watching the earnings season amid concerns over the Trump administration’s ability to implement its pro-growth policies.
According to FactSet, U.S. companies are expected to reveal their best quarterly earnings growth since 2011. As of April 13, 6% of S&P 500 companies reported Q1 earnings. About 76% have beat mean earnings-per-share estimates while 59% have beat the mean sales estimate. Additionally, the S&P 500 is expected to see an over-all earnings growth rate of 9.2% for the quarter.