Stocks climb on Wall Street, adding to gains made last week

Stocks rose in morning trading on Wall Street on Monday, gaining more ground following the market’s first weekly gain in five weeks.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.9% as of 10:18 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 172 points, or 0.5%, to 33,799 and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.5%.

Technology stocks were among the biggest gainers. Apple jumped 1.9%. Energy stocks gained ground as crude oil prices rose 3.6%. Valero Energy rose 2.8%.

The broader gains come amid several disappointing financial updates from retailers dealing with weaker sales and profit margins as inflation dents consumer spending. Macy’s shed 8.2% and Lululemon Athletica fell 10.1% after issuing cautious outlooks.

The latest corporate earnings are starting to trickle in as investors try to get a better sense of inflation’s ongoing effect on consumers and businesses. Several big companies will report their results later this week, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and UnitedHealth.

The big focus for investors remains how inflation and its impact on the economy will affect the Federal Reserve’s plan to continue raising interest rates. The central bank is trying to make borrowing more difficult and slow the economy to tame inflation, but it risks going too far and bringing on a recession.

Government reports last week showed that the employment market remains resilient. While that’s good for the economy, it also makes the Fed’s job more difficult by putting upward pressure on wages. Investors were encouraged by some of the data that showed wage growth may be tempering.

Bond yields were mixed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 3.57% from late Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which tends to track future action from the Fed, fell to 4.23% from 4.26% late Friday.

Markets in Europe and Asia gained ground. A Chinese financial news outlet cited a top central bank official as saying that China’s more than two-year crackdown on internet companies is nearly finished.

E-commerce giant Alibaba rose 1.4%. Late Friday, Alibaba affiliate and leading Chinese financial technology provider Ant Group announced its founder, e-commerce billionaire Jack Ma, will give up control of the company. The move followed efforts by the Chinese government to rein in Ma and the country’s tech sector more broadly.

AP business writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed to this report.