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China's stimulus announcement lacking in details

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Dollar index touches nine-week high

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Oil prices fall on softening demand worries

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Bond market closed for Columbus Day

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were led higher

by technology shares while crude prices dipped on Monday as

investors, amid light Columbus Day trading, looked past signs of

economic softness in China and girded themselves for a string of

high-profile corporate earnings reports.

Megacap tech-adjacent growth stocks provided much of the

upside muscle, putting the Nasdaq out front.

The S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow were both on track to reach

fresh record closing highs.

"Today is obviously kind of an anomaly of a day because of

the lack of economic data and the closure of the bond market,"

said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in

Charlottesville, Virginia. "Momentum is on the upside until

something changes."

"The smattering of earnings so far have been pretty good,"

Tuz added. "We'll see what this coming week brings."

Oil prices dipped and the dollar was flat as dour news from

China stoked fears of softening global demand.

On Saturday Beijing pledged to "significantly increase" debt

in its attempt to breathe life into the world's second-largest

economy, but disappointed investors with its lack of detail.

This was followed on Monday by a report showing a sharp

deceleration in Chinese export growth, which missed expectations

by a wide margin, underscoring the need for robust stimulus.

"China is having economic difficulties," said Sam Stovall,

chief investment strategist of CFRA Research in New York. "Oil

prices are another indication of lack of confidence that China

will be able to pull itself up by its own boot straps, primarily

because the stimulus details are so sketchy."

The bond market was closed in observance of Columbus Day,

and there were no earnings reports or economic data to sway

investor sentiment.

That will change later in the week, with retail sales,

industrial production, and housing starts/building permits,

among the scheduled data releases.

High-profile earnings on tap for the rest of the week

include Bank of America ( BAC ), Citigroup ( C/PN ), Goldman Sachs ( GS )

, Morgan Stanley ( MS ) and Netflix ( NFLX ), along with a

host of healthcare and industrial names.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 243.83 points,

or 0.57%, to 43,107.57; the S&P 500 rose 49.73 points, or

0.86%, to 5,864.76; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 180.48

points, or 0.99%, to 18,523.63.

European shares reached a two-week high at the close of a

choppy session as investors mostly shrugged off China's stimulus

plans and focused on earnings season and a European Central Bank

policy meeting due later this week.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose

4.72 points, or 0.55%, to 857.45.

The STOXX 600 index rose 0.53%, while Europe's

broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 11.55 points, or

0.56%.

Emerging market stocks rose 0.37 point, or 0.03%,

to 1,159.93. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares

outside Japan closed 0.02% lower, at 613.49,

while Japan's Nikkei rose 224.91 points, or 0.57%, to

39,605.80.

The dollar touched a nine-week high against a basket of

world currencies as the euro slipped in advance of the ECB

meeting. The dollar also advanced against the yuan amid investor

disappointment in Beijing's stimulus announcement.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback

against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,

rose 0.21% to 103.26, with the euro down 0.33% at

$1.0901. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar

strengthened 0.51% to 149.89.

Crude prices dipped as OPEC lowered its 2024 and 2025 oil

demand growth view, while China's oil imports dropped for the

fifth straight month.

U.S. crude fell 2.29% to $73.83 per barrel, while

Brent fell to $77.46 per barrel, down 2.00% on the day.

Gold backed down from a one-week high in opposition to the

greenback's strength.

Spot gold fell 0.23% to $2,650.09 an ounce. U.S. gold

futures fell 0.09% to $2,655.30 an ounce.