By Chuck Mikolajczak and Johann M Cherian
NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks kicked off August on a strong note, with each of the three major indexes rallying more than 1% as signs of de-escalating U.S.-Iran tensions pulled down oil prices and Treasury yields in a busy week for earnings and economic data.
Crude prices fell about 5% after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that talks with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz would take place on Monday, though Iran disputed that talks were
planned.
The drop in oil prices pushed U.S. Treasury yields lower, even as market participants continued to gauge the odds of a rate hike from the Federal Reserve should the Iran war continue for a prolonged period.
Communication services was the best performing of the 11 major S&P sectors, climbing more than 4% on gains from Meta Platforms and Alphabet. Energy dropped 1% as the worst performer.
"Every day, everybody wakes up and looks at the price of a barrel of oil and the yield on the 10-year, and if that's going lower, the market's OK, and if it's going higher, the market's not good whatsoever," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth in Boston.
"Typically earnings are a time that give us a chance to forget about disturbing macro influences, but this go around has not been one of those times."
ROBUST PROFITS
Earnings have been strong this quarter, showing a 29.3% growth rate from the 304 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings through Friday, according to LSEG data, with 85.2% topping analyst expectations.
Amazon shares gained more than 4%, as the company's market cap surpassed $3 trillion for the first time after its earnings results last week.
SpaceX, which will report on Tuesday its first quarterly results since going public, advanced about 2%. The stock has been trading below its $135 issue price for nearly three weeks after its debut in mid-June.
Other AI-linked companies reporting this week include Palantir, Advanced Micro Devices as well as data storage companies SanDisk and Western Digital.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 604.29 points, or 1.15%, to 53,089.21, the S&P 500 gained 112.05 points, or 1.50%, to 7,601.77 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 562.66 points, or 2.21%, to 25,935.24.
Stocks struggled in July partly due to global concerns about the AI trajectory, the U.S.-Iran conflict and the path of interest rates from the Fed.
Bristol Myers Squibb shed 0.5% after a report of preliminary merger talks with AstraZeneca. A deal could form one of the world's biggest drugmakers, worth nearly $400 billion.
Hotel operator Marriott International slumped more than 6% after forecasting third-quarter profit below expectations.
New York Federal Reserve President John Williams expressed optimism that inflation pressures would ease gradually. A report last week that U.S. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh raised the idea of scheduling fewer rate-setting meetings added to concerns about less clarity around the central bank.
Investors will receive several readings on the labor market this week, culminating with the government jobs report on Friday.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.41-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.92-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 14 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 115 new highs and 77 new lows.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak in New York and Johann M Cherian and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Rod Nickel)
