US stocks built on last week’s rally with investors bracing themselves for the start of earnings season and assessing election polls that show a strong lead for former vice-president Joe Biden.
The Nasdaq Composite was poised for its biggest rise since late April, up 3.2 per cent, with tech heavyweights Twitter and Apple gaining 5 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. The S&P 500 rose 2 per cent, adding to last week’s rally that propelled the benchmark to its best weekly performance since July.
Mr Biden’s roughly 10 percentage-point lead over Republican incumbent Donald Trump in national polling 22 days before the election had helped to ease jitters over the potential for a contested result, said Mislav Matejka, strategist at JPMorgan. He said “the chances of a clear result have increased”, describing such an outcome as a “welcome relief for investors”.