Stocks Soar As Rebound Pushes Dow 400 Points Higher

The stock market is great again. At least for today.

U.S. stocks moved sharply higher Monday following the worst week for stocks in two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 410 points, or 1.7 percent. The broader S&P 500 climbed by around 1.4 percent and the Nasdaq Composite got a 1.56 percent lift.

Building on Friday’s gains, the S&P saw its best two performance in 18 months, according to Bloomberg.

Monday’s gains were spread widely through the market with 10 of the 11 S&P sectors up. The energy sector saw the best performance of the day, boosted by rising energy prices.

With Monday’s gains, stocks are closing in on positive territory for the year. After stocks moved explosively higher in January, stocks stumbled in February and gave up more than all the gain in January. Now stocks are down about 0.35 percent since the start of the year.

U.S. government bond prices edged down Monday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was 2.858 percent on Monday, compared with 2.829 on Friday. Bond yields rise as prices fall.

Investor attention is focused on the question of inflation. With labor market tightening, January saw better job gains and higher wages than expected. That led some investors to expect inflation may rise faster than expected, forcing the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more than expected. The U.S. consumer-price index will be released January and may reveal the extent the tighter jobs market is creating inflation.