Wall Street up ahead of big week for earnings reports

Truist Financial rose 3.7%, one of the biggest gains in the market after reporting better-than-analysts-expected earnings for the start of the year.

Zions Bancorp also rose on a stronger-than-expected report. Analysts called it strong, and its stock added 3% to recoup some of the sharp decline it suffered last year. concerns about strength of the broader regional banking sector.

They helped to offset a drop of 3.4% for You're here, which announced further price cuts this weekend. Elon Musk's electric vehicle company has already seen its shares fall more than 40% this year and will report its first quarter results on Tuesday.

It's a big week for earnings reporting in general, with about 30% of S&P 500 companies required to report how much they earned in the first three months of the year. This includes several companies that are now known as part of the Magnificent Seven, beyond Tesla. This handful of companies are responsible for the majority of the S&P 500's big gains last year, raising the bar for expectations for them to justify their stock prices.

Analysts estimate that these seven stocks as a group have seen their earnings per share growth slow to 39%, from 63% at the end of last year, according to Bank of America strategists. The latest quarter may also have marked the trough in earnings declines among the other 493 companies in the index. The growth gap between them and the Magnificent Seven is expected to close by the end of the year, strategists Ohsung Kwon and Savita Subramanian said in a BofA global research report.

Verizon Communications helped kick off this week's reports by revealing a profit decline that wasn't as bad as analysts expected. It cited price increases and other measures to support its revenues.

Verizon's stock fell from an initial gain to a 4% loss after reporting weaker-than-expected first-quarter revenue and maintaining its full-year profit forecast.

There is even greater pressure than usual on businesses as a whole to generate greater profits and revenues. Indeed, it seems unlikely that the other big factor that determines stock prices, interest rates, will be of much help in the short term.

Senior Federal Reserve officials warned last week that they may need to keep interest rates high for some time to ensure that high inflation moves towards their 2% target. This was a big disappointment for financial markets, dashing hopes raised after the Fed announced earlier that three cuts could take place this year.

A rate cut appeared to be on the horizon after inflation slowed sharply last year. But one chain of reports this year showing inflation The situation remained warmer than expected, raising concerns that progress was stalled.

Traders now largely expect only one or two rate cuts this year, according to CME Group data, compared with six or more expected at the start of the year. They are also betting on the possibility of no rate cuts this year.

Concerns about persistent inflation are one reason Stifel strategists are encouraging caution.

Stocks generally look more expensive, in part because of the frenzy on Wall Street around all things artificial intelligence technology. Some analysts suggest that stock prices could continue to rise as the mania around AI further builds, but Stifel's Barry Bannister and Thomas Carroll point to signs that speculative fever is easing for the technology, including a possible Bitcoin price peak. They suggest exercising caution until the third quarter of the year, which runs from July to September.

Bitcoin remains below its peak set a month ago, but it increased on Monday.

In the bond market, the yield on 10-year Treasury bills fell slightly to 4.62%, compared to 4.63% Friday evening. The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more closely with Fed expectations, slipped to 4.96% from 4.99%.

In overseas markets, stocks rose 1.8% in Hong Kong but fell 0.7% in Shanghai after the People's Bank of China kept its prime rates on 1-year and 5-year loans unchanged. China's central bank is waiting to see whether more stimulus is needed after the economy grew faster than expected in the first three months of the year, analysts say.

Indexes were higher across much of the rest of Asia and Europe.

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AP Business writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.