Stocks rose slightly on Monday as Wall Street kicked off a big week of earnings. The moves also come as expectations of aggressive policy easing from the Federal Reserve dampen.

The S&P 500 gained 0.3% to close at 2,985.03 as the tech sector outperformed. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7% to 8,204.14. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 17.70 points, or 0.1%, to 27,171.90 but a 1% drop in Boeing capped the index's gains.

Boeing shares fell after Fitch downgraded its outlook on the airplane maker to negative. Tech shares rose 1%, led by chipmakers. Applied Materials, Micron Technology and Lam Research rose at least 3.7% after Goldman Sachs upgraded them, noting that excess inventory for memory chip companies "will be depleted" faster than expected.

More than a quarter of the S&P 500 reports earnings this week including so-called FANG names Facebook, Google's parent Alphabet and Amazon, along with blue chips like McDonald's and Boeing. Facebook, Amazon, and Alphabet all closed higher.

"Earnings have been good so far. Companies are beating low expectations," said Ryan Nauman, market strategist at Informa Financial Intelligence. "It is great to see companies beat expectations, but my enthusiasm is a bit muted because growth is still flat to negative."

So far, more than 15% of the S&P 500 has posted quarterly results. Of those companies, 78.5% have topped analyst expectations for earnings while 67% have reported better-than-expected quarterly revenues, according to FactSet data.