US STOCKS-Wall St kicks off week on high note as tech, bank shares gain

* Tech, banks among biggest sectoral boosts on S&P 500
* China industrial profits rise for fourth straight month
* Devon Energy, WPX Energy jump after agreeing to merger
deal
* Indexes up: Dow 1.30%, S&P 500 1.18%, Nasdaq 1.13%

(Updates to open)
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Sept 28 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks surged on Monday, bouncing
back from the longest weekly losing streak in a year for the S&P
500 and the Dow, with technology, banks and travel shares
leading the advance.
All of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors rose in early trading,
while the S&P 500 banks index .SPXBK jumped 2.1% and was on
track for its best day in one month.
Travel-related shares including Delta Air Lines DAL.N ,
United Airlines UAL.O and American Airlines Group Inc AAL.O
rose between 2.5% and 3%.
American Airlines Group Inc AAL.O said on Friday that it
secured a $5.5 billion Treasury loan and could tap up to $2
billion more in October depending on the allocation of extra
funds under a $25 billion loan package for airlines.
"Traders tend to gravitate toward those groups that are most
oversold because they have the greatest upside potential," said
Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA in New York,
referring to banks and travel-related stocks.
Worries over rising coronavirus cases and waning hopes of
more fiscal stimulus have led to a spike in market volatility in
the past few weeks, and analysts expect trading to remain choppy
in the run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Optimism spilled over from Asian markets after data over the
weekend showed profit at China's industrial firms rose for a
fourth straight month in August. "All of this data reminds investors that we're not headed
for a new bear market or a new recession," Stovall said.
At 10:00 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 352.90 points, or 1.30%, at 27,526.86 and the S&P 500
.SPX was up 38.95 points, or 1.18%, at 3,337.41. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 122.90 points, or 1.13%, at 11,036.46.
Shares of technology-related stocks, which bore the brunt of
a selloff earlier this month, were higher, with Facebook Inc
FB.O , Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Apple
Inc AAPL.O and Netflix Inc NFLX.O all adding about 1%.
Boeing BA.N shares rose 5.0% after Federal Aviation
Administration Chief Steve Dickson said the agency was set to
conduct a 737 MAX evaluation flight this week, a key milestone
as the planemaker aims for approval to resume flight.
Devon Energy Corp DVN.N rose 4.5% after the oil and gas
producer said it would buy peer WPX Energy Inc WPX.N for $2.56
billion. WPX Energy shares jumped 7.3%.
Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N rose 3.8% after the
ride-hailing firm won a legal bid to restore its London
operating licence, which was taken away over safety concerns.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 7.56-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a
3.52-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 3 new 52-week highs and no new lows,
while the Nasdaq recorded 31 new highs and 4 new lows.

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