Stocks open August higher after posting 6th monthly gain

Stocks were rising in early trading Monday as investors embraced another strong set of earnings as well as progress in Washington to pass a large infrastructure package.

The S&P 500 index was up 0.4% as of 10 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.3%. The indexes ended July higher, the sixth straight month of gains.

This week will be one of the busiest for investors in some time. Roughly 150 members of the S&P 500 will report their results, and the July jobs report comes out on Friday.

Companies that will report this week include DuPont, Eli Lilly, CVS, Kraft Heinz, General Motors and Humana, among many others.

So far earnings season has been strong for corporate America, with the average S&P 500 company reporting an 85.1% growth in profits from last year. Roughly nine out of ten companies have beaten expectations on both profits and revenue. The index is on pace to have its strongest earnings season since 2009.

In Washington, Republicans and Democrats made progress in advancing President Biden's infrastructure package over the weekend. The package is expected to be passed in the Senate by the end of the week.

Square rose 7% after the payments company said it would acquire the “buy now, pay later” company Afterpay for $29 billion.

Bond yields were falling again. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.20% from 1.23% on Friday. Crude oil prices were down more than 1%.