Wall Street higher as tech stocks gain, trade war worries ebb

By Sweta Singh

(Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P rose more than 1 percent, while the Nasdaq added 2 percent on Monday as strength in technology shares and a softer stance by U.S. policymakers on China trade tariffs powered a rebound from last week's selloff.

Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher and 27 of the 30 Dow components were in the positive territory. Goldman Sachs was the biggest boost to the Dow, while gains in Apple shares led the S&P 500.

The FANG group, comprising four closely watched internet stocks: Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google, were up between 1.6 percent and 3.1 percent.

Earlier in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump's economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC the president may be open to forming an international coalition to grapple with Chinese trade issues.

"The president is amenable to that. He's not necessarily out soliciting support yet, but he is amenable," Kudlow said.

Investors will look for comments from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is set to speak at the Boao Forum on Tuesday.

Global markets came under pressure last week as the United States and China threatened each other with tens of billions worth of tariffs.

The week also marks the start of earnings season with big U.S. banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo set to report first-quarter results on Friday.

Investors expect tax cuts to help corporate America show its biggest quarterly profit growth in seven years.

"Today the markets are looking positive as a probable healthy earnings helped by the recent tax benefits and a strong economy acts as a breath of fresh air," said Andre Bakhos, Managing Director at New Vines Capital Llc In Bernardsville.

At 12:45 a.m. ET the Dow Jones industrial average was up 338.57 points, or 1.41 percent, at 24,271.33.

The S&P 500 was up 39.24 points, or 1.51 percent, at 2,643.71 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 139.35 points, or 2.02 percent, at 7,054.47. Among stocks, AveXis rose 81 percent after Swiss drugmaker Novartis offered to buy the gene therapy company for $8.7 billion.

Merck's shares rose 7.1 percent after the drugmaker's blockbuster cancer drug, Keytruda, met the main study goal of helping previously untreated lung cancer patients live longer.

Shares of Leucadia National jumped 13 percent after the company said it would sell most of its non-financial assets to focus on investment banking and capital market businesses.

General Motors was up 1.5 percent after Morgan Stanley raised it to "overweight".

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 2.27-to-1 ratio on the upside. On the Nasdaq, 2,009 issues rose and 829 fell for a 2.42-to-1 ratio favouring advancers.

The S&P 500 index showed no new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 24 new highs and 29 new lows.

(Reporting by Sweta Singh in Bengaluru, Additional reporting by Diptendu Lahiri; Editing by Arun Koyyur)