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US stocks extend gains on higher factory orders

New York - Wall Street stocks rose on Monday as news of the first rise in US factory orders in eight months helped sustain positive momentum from last week's rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 46.34 points at 18 070.40.

The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 6.20 points to 2 114.49, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 11.54 points to 5 016.93.

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, characterised the gains as "momentum buying" after the Commerce Department said new orders for manufactured goods rose 2.1% in March, after seven straight months of declines.

US stocks traded in positive territory all day. The advance marked the second day in a row of gains after the S&P 500 added 1.09% Friday.

Dow member McDonald's dropped 1.7% after unveiling a turnaround plan that reorganises its international businesses and sells off more company-owned restaurants to franchisees. Analysts said a turnaround of the company's sagging sales could take as much as two years.

Cisco Systems, another Dow member, advanced 0.1% on news John Chambers would step down as chief executive and be replaced by Chuck Robbins, a longtime executive at the networking company. Chambers will remain chairperson of the board and become executive chairperson.

Dow component Disney tacked on 0.5% after its superhero blockbuster film "Avengers: Age of Ultron" netted a staggering $187.7m in opening-weekend box-office sales, close to the all-time record of $207.4m set by an earlier "Avengers" movie.

Oil and gas producer Pioneer Natural Resources fell 1.9% as money manager David Einhorn lambasted the company at an investor conference for spending excessively on fracking.

Time Warner Cable shares were back in play, gaining 1.2% under rising expectations that Charter Communications is seeking a merger. On April 24 Comcast and Time Warner gave up their merger plan on the objections of antitrust regulators. Charter shares were unchanged.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.13% from 2.11% on Friday, while the 30-year advanced to 2.87% from 2.82%. Bond yields and prices move inversely.

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