While you were sleeping: Bulls still in charge

Wall Street moved higher amid further evidence that US corporate earnings are in better shape than feared.

Shares of Berkshire Hathaway rose, last up 2 percent, after the company reported better-than-expected earnings after the market closed on Friday. Shares of Comcast also gained, last up 0.8 percent, after it posted earnings that surpassed expectations.

Despite a weakening in the pace of US economic growth, corporate earnings have not been as dire as some had anticipated. Of the S&P 500 members that have already released results this season, 73 percent exceeded profit forecasts and 49 percent surpassed sales estimates, according to Bloomberg.

"We still have a pretty heavy slate of earnings this entire week, with a number of high-profile companies reporting, that'll probably be the focus for the next several days," Michael James, a Los Angeles-based managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities, told Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, investors are also eyeing US jobs data scheduled for release later this week. The focus is on Friday's nonfarm payrolls report which is expected to show US companies added 225,000 jobs in April, pushing the unemployment rate to 5.4 percent.

On Monday, a report showed that US factory orders rose 2.1 percent in March, the largest increase since July last year, and following a 0.1 percent decline in February.

In late afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.39 percent, he Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.38 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.39 percent.

Gains in shares of JPMorgan Chase and those of Merck last up 1.7 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, led the Dow higher.

Shares of Cisco advanced, last up 0.5 percent, after the company said Chief Executive John Chambers will step down in July after 20 years in the role, and that Chuck Robbins will succeed him. Chambers will become Cisco's executive chairman.

"In many cases where the CEO has been very acquisitive, the next guy pares down and refocuses the company, and that is what I would be expecting with this change," Kim Forrest, an analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh, told Reuters.

In another era ending cautionary note, Bill Gross said that the so-called great Bull Run, which started in 1981, for stocks and bonds might be coming to an end.

"Credit based oxygen is running out," Gross said in an outlook titled "A sense of an ending" on the Janus Capital Group website. "As it is, in 2015, I merely have a sense of an ending, a secular bull market ending with a whimper, not a bang."

International markets
European stocks rose Monday, recovering from one of the worst weeks in months, supported by rebounding manufacturing data for the region.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the day with a 0.6 percent gain from the previous close. France's CAC 40 Index advanced 0.7 percent, while Germany's DAX climbed 1.4 percent. UK markets were closed on Monday for a public holiday.

Germany’s DAX 30 and France’s CAC 40 ended the day almost 1.5.% and 0.7% higher, helping the Stoxx Europe 600 to a 0.6% gain, London’s FTSE 100 was closed for a bank holiday.

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index finished up 0.9% at 4480.46 and the Hang Seng Index was flat at 28123.82. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 finished up 0.2% at 5827.5,

Commodities and currencies
Gold prices recovered from a recent one-month low as some buyers were enticed back to the market. The most actively traded contract, for June delivery, rose $US12.30, or 1.1%, to settle at $1,186.80 an ounce in New York.

Crude-oil futures fell 0.4% to $US58.94 a barrel as the US dollar strengthened.
Brent, the global benchmark, traded down 29USc, or 0.4%, to $US66.17 a barrel on signs of stronger economic growth in the eurozone.

The US dollar rose against the euro as investors took profits on recent gains.

The euro was down 0.4% against the dollar to $US1.1155. The euro is up more than 5% against the dollar from its April lows. The dollar was up 0.1% against the yen at ¥120.25. The pound was down 0.2% at $US1.5111.

(BusinessDesk)