US stock market news: Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq end higher as investors await earnings

The United States stock markets posted modest gains on Monday, helped by financial and industrial shares, while investors braced for a heavy week of corporate results and comments from Federal Reserve officials that could give more insight into the path of interest rates.

Markets are gauging the health of corporate profits and the economy after several banks kicked off first-quarter reports with strong results last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 100.71 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 33,987.18; the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 13.68 points, or 0.33 per cent, at 4,151.32; and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 34.26 points, or 0.28 per cent, at 12,157.72.

Among S&P 500 sectors, financials (.SPSY) rose 1.1 per cent, industrials (.SPLRCI) gained 0.8 per cent while the lower-weighted real estate group (.SPLRCR) increased 2.2 per cent.

Shares of Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) dropped 2.7 per cent, weighing on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, after a report that South Korea's Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) was considering replacing Google with Microsoft-owned (MSFT.O) Bing as the default search engine on its devices.

Investors are awaiting more reports from major US banks this week, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N), after heavyweights including JP Morgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) reaped windfalls from higher interest payments last week.

They are also seeking to gauge the outlooks from executives following a banking crisis last month that some expect could hasten an economic downturn.

US Treasury yields rose on Monday, with a slew of Fed speakers due later in the week. The U.S. central bank is widely seen raising rates by 25 basis points to the 5-5.25 per cent range next month.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.42-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.61-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 70 new highs and 158 new lows.

About 10 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 10.8 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.

With Reuters Inputs