China stimulus and tech earnings support US market

Wall Street ended sharply higher on Monday after China moved to stimulate its slowing economy while investors bought up technology stocks on cautious optimism on upcoming earnings reports. The Information Technology component of the S&P 500 closed up 1.79 percent on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 208.63 points, or 1.17 percent, to end at 18,034.93, the S&P 500 gained 19.22 points, or 0.92 percent, to 2,100.4, and the Nasdaq Composite added 62.79 points, or 1.27 percent, to 4,994.60… The outlook for technology companies' profits has brightened modestly following results from Intel and Netflix last week and Check Point Software's report on Monday, which beat expectations. Its shares jumped 5.05 percent… Nearly 76 percent of the S&P 500 components that have reported results so far have beat s' earnings analyst expectations, topping the 70 percent average in the last four quarters. But just 47 percent beat on revenue, compared with the 58 percent average.