The Dow Jones Industrial Average headed toward its best day in a month 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 $34 billion of each other's exports on Friday. Some fear the protectionist trade policies will slow corporate activity and crimp global growth, hurting a range of assets from stocks to commodities. Many are looking ahead to second-quarter earnings season, which begins in earnest Friday with results from some of the nation's largest banks, to see how the trade threat is affecting companies. In the last half hour of trading the Dow industrials climbed 1.37%, on track for its largest one-day climb since June 6. The S&P 500 added 0.86%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.81%. All three indexes were on track for a sixth day of gains in the past seven sessions. Trading has been quiet lately, with Friday the lowest-volume day for a full session this year on exchanges owned by the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. In the coming earnings season, analysts will also be looking for signs that corporate profits might be peaking. Earnings at companies in the S&P 500 are expected to increase 20.7% from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. That would be the second-best quarterly gain in over seven years. The US gold price gained 0.2% to 1257.20 US$/oz.
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