US open: Positive start to the week following last week's heavy losses
Wall Street trading began on a positive note on Monday following losses last week, with news of IBM's proposed acquisition of software outfit Red Hat helping to underpin sentiment.
As of 1540 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.86% to 24,899.62, while the S&P 500 was 1.05% higher 2,686.54 and the Nasdaq was 0.69% firmer at 7,216.83.
Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said: "I'm still far from confident that we're through the other side of this particular storm and the coming week could be just as turbulent as the ones that preceded it, but a positive start will come as a relief to investors."
"With a week to go until the midterms, more than a quarter of S&P 500 companies reporting and a number of notable data points to come - including the jobs report on Friday and inflation, income and spending today - I don't see this week lacking more volatility."
On the corporate front, shares in software company Red Hat surged more than 46.73% in early trade after it agreed to be bought by IBM for $34bn, or $190 per share in cash. Shares in IBM, however, were down 1.45%.
RBC Capital Markets said: "Certainly this is a transformative deal, being the largest in software history, a top ten technology transaction of all time, and a significant boost to IBM's hybrid-cloud business.
"The significant 63% control premium and healthy 9.1x CY/19E and 7.7x CY/20E EV/S multiples indicate to us that Red Hat likely did not need to sell but the offer was very strong. This, along with the approval of the deal by both boards, also likely reduces the chance that another bidder emerges."
Elsewhere, Northrop Grumman shares were down 1.41% after the company announced a $1bn accelerated stock repurchase agreement with Goldman Sachs.
Blue Apron was 19.30% higher at the open as the company's meal kits became available on Walmart's Jet.com.
On the macro calendar, the pace of consumer spending in the States picked-up a bit last month, despite the hit to incomes from Hurricane Florence, but price pressures were slightly more intense than anticipated too.
According to the Department of Commerce, personal incomes and spending in the US advanced at a monthly clip of 0.2% and 0.4% in September, respectively.
Economists had forecast gains of 0.4% for both.
However, the August rise in personal incomes was revised up by one-tenth of a percentage point from 0.3% to 0.4%, while the rate of spending for both July and August were revised higher, by one and two-tenths of a percentage point, respectively, to reveal increases of 0.5% for both months.
Elsewhere, Texas factory activity continued to expand in October although at a slower pace than the previous month, according to the monthly Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, fell to 17.6 from 23.3 in September.
Other indexes of manufacturing activity were mixed. The new orders index rose to 18.9 in October from 14.7 while the growth rate of orders index slipped to 11.0 from 11.5, a six-month low. The capacity utilization index dropped to 15.4 from 21.6, while the shipments index fell to 16.6 from 20.8.