Stocks rally boosted by banks, big tech

STORY: Wall Street rallied on Monday as gains from banks and recently battered tech giants helped U.S. stocks rebound after their longest streak of weekly declines since the dotcom bubble burst.

The Dow and S&P 500 each ended nearly 2% higher, while the Nasdaq finished up more than one and a half percent.

Some strategists said Monday’s rally felt more like a relief rally than a fundamental change in investor sentiment.

Omar Aguilar is CEO and chief investment officer of Schwab Asset Management.

“The market is taking a little bit of a breather from several weeks of high levels of volatility and selling pressure. Investors seem to be a little more calm today and we’ve seen a little bit of a rally in areas, as companies and the economy starts to just get a little bit more stable and people are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If you can actually say that.”

Tech stocks made the most of Monday’s jump, with shares of Apple ending 4% higher, while Microsoft gained more than 3%.

Shares of interest rate-sensitive banks shot higher after the largest U.S. lender, JPMorgan Chase, raised its current year interest income outlook.

Shares of VMWare rose nearly 25% following reports over the weekend that chipmaker Broadcom was in talks to acquire the cloud service provider. Broadcom’s stock dropped 3% on the news.

On Friday, the S&P 500 closed dangerously near bear market territory – down 18.7% below its record closing high reached on Jan. 3. If the index closes 20% below the record, that would be the end of the bull market that has dominated Wall Street since the global health crisis began two years ago.