Wall Street gains as Trump to leave hospital, investors hope for stimulus

US stocks rose sharply on Monday, recovering from declines in the previous session, as investors viewed more fiscal stimulus as likely and after news President Donald Trump will leave the hospital where he is being treated for coronavirus.

Trump said he felt “really good” and will leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at 6:30 p.m. (2230 GMT). Trump has been at the hospital since late Friday.

Shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc jumped after Trump’s physician said he had been treated with Regeneron’s dual antibody treatment.

Doubts about the scale of further fiscal aid and a slowing economic recovery have weighed on the S&P 500 recently, with the benchmark index in September logging its worst month since the coronavirus-driven crash earlier this year.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Monday there was still potential to reach an agreement with U.S. lawmakers on more coronavirus relief and that Trump was committed to getting the deal done.

“The stimulus deal is still sitting there and there’s still communication going on … It looks increasingly like something’s going to get done,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at The Leuthold Group in Minneapolis.Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 460.47 points, or 1.66%, to 28,143.28, the S&P 500 gained 59.32 points, or 1.77%, to 3,407.76 and the Nasdaq Composite added 255.26 points, or 2.3%, to 11,330.28.

Also helping the market was positive economic data.

After data last week showed an unexpected slowdown in the domestic manufacturing sector in September, figures on Monday showed activity in the broader services industry pulled above levels that prevailed before the Covid-19 pandemic.