New York, Oct 21 (AP) US stocks rallied on Monday to the cusp of their records.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.1 per cent and pulled within 0.3 per cent of its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 515 points, or 1.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.4per cent.

Apple led the way and rose 3.9 per cent amid optimism about demand for its latest iPhone design. It was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 and set its own record high.

Cleveland-Cliffs jumped 21.5 per cent after the steel company's CEO, Lourenco Goncalves, said it would provide details soon about a potential deal with a major global steel producer that could mean bigger profits. He also said his company has potentially found signs of rare earths at sites in Michigan and Minnesota.

Such materials have grabbed the global spotlight after China recently put curbs on the export of its own rare earths, a move that President Donald Trump characterised as hostile. Trump's ensuing threat of higher tariffs triggered big swings for Wall Street, but the concerns eased a bit after Trump said such high tax rates on Chinese imports are unsustainable.

Another source of worry for Wall Street, from the banking industry, also appears to be easing. Stocks of smaller and mid-sized banks climbed Monday, recovering some of their losses after a couple raised alarm bells last week by warning about potentially bad loans they've made.

Zions Bancorp gained 4.7 per cent Monday following its 5.1 per cent drop last week, when it said it had found “apparent misrepresentations and contractual defaults” related to a couple borrowers.

Amazon's stock held up despite a widespread outage for its cloud computing service that caused disruption for internet users around the world Monday. Amazon's stock rose 1.6 per cent.

All told, the S&P 500 added 71.12 points to 6,735.13. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 515.97 to 46,706.58, and the Nasdaq composite gained 310.57 to 22,990.54.

This week features a raft of big names reporting their latest quarterly results, including Coca-Cola on Tuesday, Tesla on Wednesday and Procter & Gamble on Friday.

The pressure is on companies broadly to show that their profits are growing following a torrid run of 35 per cent for the S&P 500 from a low in April. Delivering bigger profits is one of the easiest ways for companies to quiet criticism that stock prices have gone too high. The other is for stock prices to fall.

Corporate profit reports have also taken on more importance because they offer windows into the strength of the US economy when the US government's shutdown has delayed important economic updates.

That's making the job of the Federal Reserve more difficult, as it tries to decide whether high inflation or the slowing job market is the bigger issue for the economy. Fed officials have indicated they're likely to cut rates several more times in order to give the economy a boost. But that could be a mistake if inflation worsens, because low interest rates can push it even higher.

On Friday, the US government will issue an update for inflation during September. The report was supposed to arrive earlier in month, and the Social Security Administration needs the numbers to calculate cost-of-living adjustments for beneficiaries. But the government also said, “No other releases will be rescheduled or produced until the resumption of regular government services.” In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 3.98 per cent from 4.02 per cent late Friday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 3.4 per cent, after its governing Liberal Democrats found a new coalition partner, securing support for its leader Sanae Takaichi to become the country's prime minister. Investors expect Takaichi, who would also be Japan's first female prime minister, to push for low interest rates, higher government spending and other policies that could help the market.

Indexes rose 2.4 per cent in Hong Kong and 0.6 per cent in Shanghai after China reported its economy grew at a 4.8 per cent annual pace in the last quarter, supported by relatively strong exports as companies increased shipments markets other than the US.

Still, it was the slowest pace in a year. The world's second-largest economy is still struggling to emerge from a prolonged downturn in its property market and to encourage consumers and businesses to spend more. (AP) RUK RUK

Government shutdown delays economic data, complicates Federal Reserve policy decisions and increases market volatility and uncertainty. A broad equity rally driven by strong technology demand and corporate developments occurred amid policy and regulatory risks. Geopolitical trade measures-including export curbs on strategic minerals and threats of higher import tariffs-heightened supply chain risk. The ongoing government shutdown has delayed key economic releases used for program adjustments and macro assessment, complicating the Federal Reserve's evaluation of inflation versus labour market weakness and making near term monetary policy decisions more uncertain.