By Caroline Valetkevitch
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose sharply on Monday as a rebound in U.S. services industry activity in June and expectations of a revival in China's economy boosted optimism, helping investors look past a surge in new coronavirus cases in the United States.
The Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) non-manufacturing activity index almost returned to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels last month, jumping to a reading of 57.1, the highest since February, from 45.4 in May, a report showed.
"These numbers are important, and it helps to explain the increase in consumer confidence," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU) in Newark, New Jersey.
Investors also bet on an improving Chinese economy and its impact on the global growth as the yuan led commodity currencies higher against the dollar. Earlier, Chinese stocks jumped more than 5%.
A slew of upbeat U.S. data recently, including a record rise in monthly payrolls, has powered the Nasdaq to all-time highs and has driven the S&P 500 up more than 40% from its March 23 closing low.
The gains came despite a record surge in new COVID-19 cases in 16 states in the United States this month that could further hamper reopening plans and create a risk to the economic recovery.
Over the Independence Day weekend, several states reported a record increase in new infections, with Florida surpassing the highest daily tally reported by any European country during the peak of the outbreak there.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 459.67 points, or 1.78%, to 26,287.03, the S&P 500 gained 49.71 points, or 1.59%, to 3,179.72 and the Nasdaq Composite added 226.02 points, or 2.21%, to 10,433.65.
Online retail giant Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) crossed $3,000 for the first time and provided the biggest boost to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. The stock rose 5.8% to end at $3,057.04.
Tesla Inc shares jumped 13.5%, rising for the fifth session as JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) bumped up its price target for the electric carmaker's stock following better-than-expected quarterly deliveries.
Uber Technologies Inc climbed 6% after the ride-sharing company agreed to buy food-delivery app Postmates Inc in a $2.65-billion all-stock deal.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.54-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.88-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 38 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 152 new highs and 14 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.91 billion shares, compared with the 12.9 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.