S&P 500 Index Rises Toward 5th Quarterly Gain Before Yellen Talk

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U.S. stocks climbed, with the Standard & Poor™s 500 Index poised for a fifth straight quarterly gain, amid signs of tension easing in Ukraine and before a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

The S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent to 1,863.25 at 9:30 a.m. in New York. A quarterly advance would give the gauge its longest streak since 2007. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32.17 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,355.23.

The S&P 500 fell 0.5 percent last week, trimming its gain in 2014 to 0.5 percent, as investors sold the bull market™s biggest winners to lock in gains as they assess how much of the recent economic weakness is weather-related and if the situation in Ukraine will worsen.

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U.S. Stock-Index Futures Climb Before Fed Chair Yellen’s Speech

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U.S. stock-index futures climbed, indicating the Standard & Poor™s 500 Index will rebound from last week™s decline, as investors awaited a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

Biogen Idec Inc. advanced 1.8 percent in premarket trading after winning U.S. regulatory approval for a blood-disorder treatment. Tesla Motors Inc. added 1.2 percent after reaching an agreement with car-dealer lobbying groups in New York.

S&P 500 futures expiring in June gained 0.3 percent to 1,856.8 at 10:57 a.m. in London. The equity benchmark fell 0.5 percent last week as banks and technology-companies declined, while a speech by President Barack Obama increased concern that tension will escalate in Ukraine. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts rose 54 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,294 today.

The Federal Open Market Committee on March 19 scrapped a threshold for considering raising interest rates based on unemployment dropping to 6.5 percent. A Labor Department report due on Friday will probably show that the jobless rate fell to 6.6 percent last month from 6.7 percent in February, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Three rounds of bond buying by the Fed have helped the S&P 500 rally as much as 178 percent since its low in 2009.

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Hong Kong Stocks End 0.39% Higher

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Hong Kong shares climbed 0.39 percent on Monday, in line with a broad Asian advance, following a strong lead from Wall Street.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index added 85.53 points to finish at 22,151.06 on turnover of HK$66.05 billion (US$8.52 billion).

But, in China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.41 percent, or 8.41 points, to 2,033.31 on turnover of 71.6 billion yuan ($11.5 billion).

The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, slid 0.41 percent, or 4.26 points, to 1,039.88 on turnover of 76.4 billion yuan.

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Asian Stocks Rise Fourth Day as Consumer Shares Lead Gains

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Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index heading for its fourth straight daily gain, as consumer shares led the advance.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.9 percent to 137.84 as of 5:15 p.m. in Tokyo with about three shares rising for each that fell. The gauge lost 0.8 percent this month and 3.3 percent this year through last week as investors weighed the crisis in Ukraine, with stocks in Japan and Hong Kong declining the most among developed markets. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speaks in Chicago today as investors await payrolls data due this week to assess the outlook for U.S. interest rates.

Halla Visteon Climate Control Corp., a maker of automotive air-control equipment, jumped 7 percent in Seoul, the most among a MSCI Asia Pacific Index industry group tracking consumer shares. Samsung SDI Co., a South Korean supplier of batteries to Apple Inc., jumped 6.6 percent after it agreed to buy Cheil Industries Inc. Mazda Motor Corp., a Japanese automaker that gets about 30 percent of its revenue in North America, gained 4.3 percent.

China’s Stocks Benchmark Posts Biggest Quarterly Loss Since June

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China™s stocks fell, capping the benchmark index™s biggest quarterly loss since June, as industrial and consumer-discretionary companies slumped before the release of manufacturing data tomorrow.

FAW Car Co. and XJ Electric Co. slid at least 2 percent. China Minsheng Bank Corp. dropped the most in three weeks after earnings trailed analysts™ estimates. BesTV New Media Co., which formed a game console venture with Microsoft Corp. in Shanghai™s free-trade zone, plunged 10 percent as the shares resumed trading following a weeklong halt.

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped for a fourth day, losing 0.4 percent to 2,033.31 at the close. The measure slid 1.1 percent this month, extending this quarter™s slump to 3.9 percent, after a private developer collapsed and concern grew the restart of initial public offerings will divert funds.

The CSI 300 Index slipped 0.3 percent to 2,146.31 today, extending this quarter™s loss to 7.9 percent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index advanced 0.4 percent for a 1.5 percent gain this month. The H-shares index trades at 6.7 times estimated earnings, compared with 7.5 for the Shanghai Composite. Trading volumes in the Shanghai index were 20 percent below the 30-day average for this time of day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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