NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rallied in afternoon trading on Wall Street Monday following seven weeks of declines that nearly ended the bull market that began in March 2020.
Banks made strong gains along with rising bond yields, which they rely on to charge more lucrative interest on loans. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.85% from 2.77% late Friday. Bank of America rose 6.7%.
Technology stocks also did some heavy lifting. Apple rose 3.6% and Microsoft rose 3%. The sector has been choppy over the last few weeks and has prompted many of the market’s recent big swings.
Lingering concerns about inflation have been weighing on the market and have kept major indexes in a slump. The benchmark S&P 500 is so far experiencing its longest weekly losing streak since the dot-com bubble was deflating in 2001. It came close to falling 20% from its peak earlier this year, which would put the index at the heart of most workers’ 401(k) accounts into a bear market.
