#US stocks jump after two weeks of losses, bitcoin up 13 percent

Stocks are broadly higher in morning trading on Wall Street Monday as investors regained an appetite for risk after the market notched two straight weeks of losses.

The S&P 500 index was up 1.1 percent as of 11:20 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 215 points, or 0.6 percent, to 34,423, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.5 percent.

Technology stocks were among the bigger gainers, particularly semiconductor companies. Nvidia and Micron both rose more than 2 percent. Communications stocks, like Facebook, and a variety of companies that rely on direct consumer spending also made solid gains. Sectors that are viewed as safer investments, like utilities, lagged the broader market.

Investors continue to watch for potential signs of inflation as the economic recovery continues in the waning days of the US coronavirus pandemic.

Earnings season at this point is near its end. Investors will get results from Dell and Salesforce.com this week, among a few others.

There’s only a handful of economic reports this week, including monthly home sales. On Friday, investors will get another reading on inflation in the form of the Commerce Department’s personal consumption and expenditures index. “Core PCE,” as it is known, is the preferred way Federal Reserve policymakers choose to measure inflation in the US instead of the more widely known Consumer Price Index that’s reported earlier in the month.

Economists surveyed by FactSet expect Core PCE to be up 3 percent from a year ago, which would be above the Federal Reserve’s targeted level for inflation.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.59 percent from 1.63 percent Friday.

Digital currencies like bitcoin were volatile once again after plummeting over the last two weeks. Bitcoin rose 13 percent, to around $38,000, according to Coindesk. It was worth nearly $65,000 a month ago.

Virgin Galactic jumped 15.6 percent after the company made its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the fringe of space in a manned shuttle over the weekend.