Wall Street kicked off November with a stock-market rally that helped push the Dow industrials into positive territory as investors brushed off weak manufacturing data and focused instead on a spate of deals and earnings.
“With the little bit of merger activity, investors are getting excited by a November-December rally,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management.
“Even though the [Federal Reserve] is talking about raising rates, global money is still very easy,” Nolte said, referring to investors’ worries that a move by the U.S. central bank to end easy-money policies which have helped fuel the yearslong stock rally would sap market momentum.
The S&P 500 SPX, +1.19% rose 24.69 points, or 1.2%, to close at 2,104.05 with all 10 main sectors trading higher. It is the S&P 500’s first close above 2,100 since Aug. 17.
The bulk of gains on the index came from the health-care sector, which climbed 2%, thanks to a jump in biotechnology stocks. Energy shares also rallied 2.4% after oil prices recovered from earlier losses..........
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