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STORY: Wall Street closed higher on Monday ahead of a packed week of earnings from megacap companies and the final stretch before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The Dow climbed about two-thirds of one percent while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq added about a quarter of one percent each.

About 1/3 of S&P 500 companies report quarterly results this week including technology giants Microsoft, Apple, and Meta Platforms.

Matt Stucky, chief portfolio manager for equities with Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management will be paying close attention.

"You know, technology has been really kind of lifting the overall market substantially the last few years. And if you look at the six largest technology companies, companies like Google, Microsoft Meta, Apple, Amazon, NVIDIA, you know collectively, if you were to take them as one portfolio and look at the earnings growth year on year, they're expected to generate almost 20% earnings growth in the third quarter. If you were to look at the rest of the market and just take out those six large technology companies, the expected growth year on year is roughly flat. So high expectations for these companies are certainly kind of how I would characterize this upcoming earnings season."

Investor sentiment improved on Monday after energy supplies were not disrupted by weekend developments in the Middle East as Israel’s response to an Iranian attack avoided refineries.

Stocks on the move included Boeing which fell nearly three percent after the planemaker launched a stock offering that could raise up to $22 billion in a bid to shore up its finances amid an ongoing worker strike.

And shares of 3M gained more than four percent after JP Morgan hiked its price target on the industrial conglomerate’s stock.