MTS Help Center

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 190.87 points, or 0.76 percent, to 25,461.7, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 15.25 points, or 0.56 percent, to 2,738.31 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 28.14 points, or 0.38 percent, to 7,328.85.

The S&P 500 rose on Monday with boosts from financial, energy and defensive sectors as investors showed some caution on the eve of U.S. congressional elections.

Falling U.S. Treasury yields helped defensive sectors such as real estate, utilities and consumer staples, which are sensitive to rising interest rates, according to traders.

• Investors were also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s two-day monetary policy meeting starting on Wednesday. They have been keeping a close eye on the prospects of tightening U.S. monetary policy, especially after a string of strong economic data, including Friday’s jobs report.

• U.S. earnings growth for S&P 500 companies in the third quarter is on track to be the highest since 2010, eclipsing the strong results from earlier this year, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Stronger-than-expected earnings have pushed the estimate for third-quarter growth to 27.4 percent, based on results from 381 of the S&P 500 companies and estimates for the rest.

The growth estimate is well above the 21.6 percent growth for the quarter forecast by analysts on Oct. 1, and it would surpass the first quarter’s 26.6 percent growth and the second quarter’s 24.9percent growth, based on Refinitiv data.

• European stocks lacked an overall direction in late Monday trading, closing mixed as investors digested different political events.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down 0.09 percent provisionally, with the various sectors taking different directions. Technology was down by about 1.5 percent, whereas oil and gas stocks jumped by about the same amount.