S&P 500 Climbs to Highest in 15 Months

Wall Street pushed higher Monday ahead of a week full of updates about where profits for big US companies are heading. The S&P 500 rose 17.37, or 0.4%, to 4,522.79 and its highest closing level in 15 months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 76.32, or 0.2%, to 34,585.35, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 131.25, or 0.9%, to 14,244.95. Stocks elsewhere around the world slipped after China reported weaker economic growth for the spring than economists expected. Its recovery following the removal of anti-COVID restrictions has fallen short of forecasts.

This upcoming week will offer more details on how the economy has affected companies as corporate earnings season ramps up, the AP reports. Nearly 60 companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to report this upcoming week how much profit they made from April through June. Expectations broadly are low. Analysts are forecasting the worst drop for earnings per share among S&P 500 companies since the pandemic was pummeling the economy in the spring of 2020, according to FactSet. They're also forecasting a third straight quarter of declines in profits. Also coming up this week will be the latest monthly update on sales at US retailers.

Several big technology and other high-growth stocks helped the market to rise Monday, including Tesla, which climbed 3.2%. Tesla also said over the weekend that its first production Cybertruck electric pickup has rolled off the assembly line, though that was nearly two years behind the original schedule. Activision Blizzard rose 3.5% after a US appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by regulators to block the video game maker's $68.7 billion purchase by Microsoft. On the losing end was Ford, which fell 5.9%. It cut the sticker price on its F-150 Lightning electric pickup by thousands of dollars. (More stock market stories.)