While you were sleeping: UPDATED Dow passes 18,000 in nine-month high

Wall Street closed at a nine-month high amid better-than-expected earnings including for Hasbro and New York Federal Reserve president William Dudley’s positive assessment of the US economy. 

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 106.70 points, or 0.6%, to 18,004.16, its highest since July 20, 2015. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.4% to 4960.02 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.65% to 2094.34.

The Dow was led by gains in shares of Walt Disney and those of Microsoft, up 2.9% and 1.5% respectively. 

Walt Disney shares climbed after its remake of The Jungle Book opened at the weekend box office in the top spot, grossing more than $US100 million. 

Shares of Hasbro jumped 5.8% after the toy company reported earnings that beat expectations.

“Demand for Star Wars: The Force Awakens products continued to be high and we benefited from the addition of Disney Princess and Frozen fashion and small dolls,” Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner said in a statement. “We are very encouraged with global demand and our outlook for 2016."

Shares of Morgan Stanley fell 0.6% after the bank's quarterly profit dropped by more than 50%. 

Stephen Biggar, an analyst at Argus Research, said it would be "very difficult" for Morgan Stanley to achieve the return-on-equity target CEO James Gorman has set out with revenue as weak as it was last quarter, according to Reuters.

IBM and Netflix are scheduled to release results after the markets close.

Bond prices fall
US Treasurys dropped, pushing yields on the 10-note three basis points higher to 1.773% from 1.753 on Friday after the New York Fed’s Mr Dudley said that news on the US economy was “mostly favourable” and said the economic outlook for Europe has “started to improve.”

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the session with a 0.4% advance from the previous close.

The UK’s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.2%, France’s CAC 40 Index gained 0.3%, while Germany’s DAX Index rose 0.7%.

Oil traded higher, recovering from an earlier drop a day after the world’s major producers failed to strike a deal to freeze output at a meeting in Doha. Supporting prices was a strike in Kuwait that lowered the country’s daily crude production by more than half.

US crude oil lost 1.4% to $US39.78 a barrel.

“Even if it’s still negative, it’s less negative than at the open since the Doha outcome was largely expected and there are rumours of a new meeting before June,” John Plassard, a senior equity-sales trader at Mirabaud Securitiesin Geneva, told Bloomberg.

(BusinessDesk)