US STOCKS-Tech, bank shares drive Wall Street higher

© Reuters.

* Banks among biggest sectoral boosts on S&P 500
* Devon Energy, WPX Energy jump after agreeing to merger
deal
* Indexes up: Dow 2.00%, S&P 500 1.65%, Nasdaq 1.33%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Sept 28 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks jumped on Monday, bouncing
back from the longest weekly losing streak in a year for the S&P
500 and the Dow, with technology, banks and travel-related
shares leading the advance.
All 11 major S&P 500 sectors rose, with the S&P 500
financials index's .SPSY 3% jump putting it on track for its
best day in two and a half months.
Analysts said the gains could also be attributed to
quarter-end rebalancing of investor portfolios as cyclical
sectors including financials, industrials .SLPRCI , materials
.SPLRCM and energy .SPNY added more than 2% by mid-day
trading.
"There is a lack of negative news out there, we are going
through a reflex rally," said Sam Stovall, chief investment
strategist at CFRA in New York.
"Traders tend to gravitate toward those groups that are most
oversold because they have the greatest upside potential," he
said, referring to banks and travel-related stocks.
Delta Air Lines DAL.N , United Airlines UAL.O and
American Airlines Group Inc AAL.O , rose between 5.7% and 6.2%.
Monday's bounce also put the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 on
course for their biggest two-quarter gains since 2000 and 2009,
respectively.
Tech-related shares including Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O ,
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Apple Inc AAPL.O Netflix Inc NFLX.O
and Tesla Inc TSLA.O have surged over this period due to their
perceived stability at a time of economic uncertainty.
Still, Wall Street's three main indexes were on track for
their first monthly decline since the coronavirus-led crash in
March, and analysts expect trading to remain choppy in the
run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential election.
"We don't see this as the beginning of another big leg up.
Between now and the election, you're going to see a lot of
turmoil," John Traynor, chief investment officer at People's
United Advisors, said.
At 12:52 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 543.47 points, or 2.00%, at 27,717.43, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 54.40 points, or 1.65%, at 3,352.86 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 144.94 points, or 1.33%, at 11,058.50.
Boeing BA.N shares jumped 7.3% after Federal Aviation
Administration Chief Steve Dickson said the agency was set to
conduct a 737 MAX evaluation flight this week, a key milestone
as the planemaker aims for approval to resume flight.
Devon Energy Corp DVN.N jumped 11.9% after the oil and gas
producer said it would buy peer WPX Energy Inc WPX.N for $2.56
billion. WPX Energy shares surged 16.9%. Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N rose 3.7% after the
ride-hailing firm won a legal bid to restore its London
operating licence, which was taken away over safety concerns.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 6.50-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 3.02-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded five new 52-week highs and no new
low, while the Nasdaq recorded 39 new highs and 22 new lows.