U.S. stocks climb

Commodity prices jump

Investors looking ahead to earnings season

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its best day in a month Monday as investors focused on a strong jobs report from late last week and the coming earnings season, despite heightened trade tensions.

Recent tariffs have kept investors on edge, with the U.S. and China slapping levies on $34 billion of each other’s exports Friday. Some fear the protectionist trade policies will slow corporate activity and crimp global growth, hurting a range of assets from stocks to commodities.

Still, some analysts say they expect the countries to eventually reach a compromise on trade, instead focusing on the latest economic and corporate earnings figures. Investors said Friday’s monthly jobs data was a positive for stocks, as it showed strong hiring and contained gains in wage growth, indicating inflation is still in check.

Now, many are looking ahead to second-quarter earnings season, which begins in earnest Friday with results from some of the nation’s largest banks, to see how the trade threat is affecting companies.

“It hasn’t filtered through yet into areas that would make it an actual hard data issue,” said Steven Chiavarone, assistant vice president and portfolio manager at Federated Investors Inc. “I don’t think we’re going to see it in the earnings numbers, but where we could see it is in some of the guidance and some of the commentary.”