By Jessica Menton and Will Horner 

U.S. stocks rose Monday, powered by gains in technology shares.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 92 points, or 0.4%, to 25541. The S&P 500 advanced 1.2% and the tech tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.7%.

Tech shares in the S&P 500 advanced 2% after Nvidia Corp. agreed to buy computer-networking supplier Mellanox Technologies Ltd. in an all-cash deal valued at roughly $7 billion. Nvidia's shares rose 5.9% while Mellanox's shares jumped 8.3%.

Shares of tech companies, the darlings of the stock market in recent years, were pummeled in the bruising fourth-quarter selloff amid worries about the health of the now 10-year-old bull market for stocks. But shares have broadly bounced back this year, with the tech sector up 15% so far this quarter.

"There may have been too much of a run up from a valuation perspective in technology stocks, but they're still a growth engine," said Ron Weiner, managing partner and director at RDM Financial Group at HighTower. "They probably sold off a little too much recently, but long term as an industry they're well positioned because technology is the future."

Apple shares rose 3.3%, among the biggest gains in the Dow industrials. Shares of Boeing dragged on the blue-chip index, slumping 6.7% after China and Indonesia grounded all of their Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft following Sunday's deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet of the same type.

Shares of other aerospace and defense companies mostly rose. United Technologies, Textron and Arconic each ticked up around 1% apiece.

The pull back in Boeing is likely short-term and could mark a buying opportunity for investors, according to Mr. Weiner.

"Boeing is in the catbird seat," Mr. Weiner said. "More people are entering the middle class and they're traveling. There needs to be more airplanes and there are only two major manufacturers."

Monday's gains came after questions about the health of the world economy prompted stock declines Friday. A dramatic slide in Chinese exports and the lackluster U.S. jobs report led Wall Street to close out its worst week since December.

Hopes were lifted that a U.S.-China trade could soon be reached after Beijing's top central banker said Sunday that China had agreed not to devalue its currency to support its exporters.

The yuan's decline in 2018 had raised concerns in Washington that China was pushing down its value to offset U.S. tariffs on Chinese products, and had been a key sticking point for U.S. trade negotiators.

While the trade issue remained at the forefront of investors' concerns, Geoffrey Yu, head of the investment office at UBS Wealth Management, said some were beginning to see a possible resolution.

"It seems like the market is starting to move on from this, pricing in significant good news," he said.

U.S. consumers ramped up their spending in January, a sign of solid economic growth in the first quarter following a mixed jobs report Friday that raised fresh concerns about U.S. growth.

"The retail numbers were relatively good, signaling the consumer is alive and well," said John Carey, managing director and portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer. "People are hopeful that the economic recovery is going to continue and we're not going into a recession."

Comments from Jerome Powell in a televised interview Sunday also offered investors some comfort. He said the U.S. economic outlook was favorable and doesn't require higher or lower interest rates for now.

The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.8%. The British parliament is set to vote on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal on Tuesday, with expectations high that it will be rejected for a second time, and further votes on Wednesday and Thursday likely.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of 16 peers, was broadly flat. The yield on 10-year Treasurys rose to 2.643%, from 2.627% Friday. Yields rise as bond prices fall.

China's indexes advanced following sharp declines at the end of last week. The Shenzhen A Share Index jumped 3.9% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1%.

Write to Jessica Menton at Jessica.Menton@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 11, 2019 12:53 ET (16:53 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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