Wall Street climbs on boost from tech stocks

Wall Street`s main indexes gained on Monday, with the Nasdaq up about 1%, as investors flocked to lagging technology shares, while gearing up for key inflation readings later this week. Risk sentiment also improved with cryptocurrencies clawing back ground after a bout of weekend selling fueled by further signs of a gathering Chinese crackdown on the emerging sector.

Crypto-exchange operator Coinbase Global and miners Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital Holdings gained between 1% and 3.8%.

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Technology added 1.4%, leading sectoral gains, with Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Nvidia providing the biggest boost to the benchmark S&P 500. Tech is among the worst-performing S&P sectors this month.

Equity markets have been rocked in recent weeks as investors juggled between strong economic data and fears that supply side constraints could prompt a prolonged period of higher prices and force the Federal Reserve to pare back its crisis era support.

"We are looking at a good positive start to the week as equity valuations are back to a reasonable level and are easily justified which is helping remove a good chunk of speculative trade," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

"We went through a period of time when we were out of tech and into value stocks, while right now we see a lot of those trades come back into tech."

After falling as much as 4.3% from its May 7 record high, the S&P 500 is now only 1.3% off that level as investors picked up technology stocks that were beaten down the most on rate hike fears.

The U.S. personal consumption data on Thursday, the Fed`s preferred inflation measure, will be the centerpiece of the week. At 9:58 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 165.59 points, or 0.48%, at 34,373.43 and the S&P 500 was up 31.85 points, or 0.77%, at 4,187.71. The Nasdaq Composite was up 148.75 points, or 1.10%, at 13,619.74.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp and Cimarex Energy Co agreed to merge to form a U.S. oil and gas producer with an enterprise value of about $17 billion, the latest deal in a sector rebounding from one of its worst downturns.

Shares of Cabot and Cimarex fell 7.3% and 8%, while the broader energy index was largely flat.

Construction materials supplier Martin Marietta Materials Inc said it would buy HeidelbergCement AG`s assets in California and Arizona for $2.3 billion. Martin Marietta`s shares rose 1.3%.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.82-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.71-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 17 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 57 new highs and 15 new lows.