NEW YORK: US stocks opened higher on Monday despite ongoing fighting in the Middle East, as investors looked ahead to some significant company earnings this week.
A number of major US companies, including Bank of America, Netflix and Tesla are due to report their third quarter earnings this week, providing a window into how they are doing in the current economic environment.
Shortly after stocks began trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6 percent at 33,886.92.
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The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent to 4,357.76, as did the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index, which climbed to 13,500.48.
But despite the optimistic start to the trading week, financial markets are still unnerved by the threat of an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip following the deadly attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Sky News on Monday that it was simply “too early” to tell what the economic impact of the conflict might be, adding that the US is monitoring the situation.
“Notwithstanding the improved tone this morning, it is relative to Friday, which is to say the worry about a widening in the Israel-Hamas War is still very much on the market’s mind,” Briefing.com’s chief market analyst, Patrick O’Hare, wrote in a note before markets opened.
“The difference at the moment is that equity market participants know they have the capacity to act on new developments in real-time for the next five days,” he added.
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