Wall Street ends higher following 7 straight weeks of losses

A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, May 19, 2022. Stocks are opening moderately lower in early trading on Wall Street, finding some stability a day after their biggest drop in nearly two years. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Monday following seven weeks of declines that nearly ended the bull market that began in March 2020. The S&P 500 rose 1.9%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2% and the Nasdaq rose 1.6%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set mortgage rates, rose to 2.86%.

Banks and technology stocks made some of the strongest gains. VMware surged 20.8% following a report that chipmaker Broadcom is offering to buy the cloud-computing company. JPMorgan Chase jumped 6.9% after giving investors an encouraging update on its financial forecasts.

Retailers and some other companies that rely on direct consumer spending lagged the rest of the market. Amazon fell 0.7%. A series of disappointing earnings reports from key retailers last week raised concerns that consumers are tempering spending on a wide range of goods as they get squeezed by rising inflation.