US stocks rally ahead of big earnings reports

New York - Wall Street stocks scored solid gains on Monday ahead of a heavy week of corporate earnings and after China reported better-than-expected first quarter growth.

The earnings calendar this week includes Goldman Sachs, Netflix and General Electric. Companies in the S&P 500 are expected to report 9.2% growth in first-quarter earnings, according to FactSet.

Chinese economic growth came in at 6.9% in the first quarter, better than the 6.8% expected by analysts and a sign of stabilisation in the world's second-biggest economy.

Analysts said geopolitical concerns were still important, but investors took heart after there were no major international incidents over the weekend. Stocks sold off late last week ahead of the holiday weekend on anxiety about North Korea and Syria.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.9% to close the session at 20 636.86.

The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.9% to end the day at 2 349.01, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.9% to finish at 5 856.79.

Technology companies with solid gains of 1.5% or more included Amazon, Facebook and Google parent Alphabet.

Boeing won 1.9% on news that it plans to cut hundreds of engineering jobs in a response to slowing commercial airplane sales.

Metals company Arconic, a recent spinoff from aluminium giant Alcoa, rose 3.1% on news that Klaus Kleinfeld would step down as chief executive in the wake of pressure from Elliott Management.

Alere, which sells diagnostic tools to the health industry, surged 15.9% after it agreed to amend the terms of its sale to Abbott for $5.3bn, down from $5.8bn when it was announced in January 2016.

The moves put the deal back on track after Abbott had said it might not be completed. Abbott Laboratories gained 1.5%.

Eli Lilly dropped 4.1% on news the US Food and Drug Administration did not approve the drug maker’s application for baricitinib, a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.