Wall Street opens higher led by strong gains in financials

• Risk appetite remains strong on renewed trade optimism.
• Rising US T-bond yields provide a boost to financial shares.
• Defensive sectors stay in the negative territory in the early trade.

Major equity indexes in the United States started the day in the positive territory on Monday on the back of the upbeat market sentiment. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were adding 0.45% and 0.65%, respectively.

Earlier in the day, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox Business Network that they could cancel the December tariffs if trade talks were to continue to go well with China. Moreover, heightened hopes of the UK parliament approving the Brexit deal seems to be helping risk-on flows continue to dominate the market.

Rising US Treasury bond yields provided a boost to the S&P 500 Financials Index on Monday, which was last up more than 1% on the day to lead the winners. On the other hand, the so-called defensive sectors, Utilities, Real Estate, and Consumer Staples, were posting modest losses to confirm the upbeat market mood.