Wall Street records gains as oil rallies

U.S. stocks built on their recent gains and advanced for the third session in a row on Monday, boosted by rising crude oil prices and the solid performance of technology and defense shares.

• Forex today: dollar remains on the backfoot, DXY -0.16% now below 97 handle

Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump reached a deal with Saudi Arabia, selling U.S. arms worth $110 billion, potentially leading up to a total of $350 billion in the next 10 years, pushing the defense firms' shares such as General Dynamics, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to record highs.

On the other hand, fueled by the renewed expectations of a nine-month extension to the OPEC output cut deal, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate reached its highest level in more than a month at $51.42, allowing the S&P 500 energy index, .SPNY, gain 1.25%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 90 points, or 0.43%, to 20,894.83, the S&P 500 added 11 points, or 0.46%, to 2,392.9. Led by the sharp increases of tech giants such as the Amazon, Microsoft and Apple shares, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 43.77 points, or 0.72%, at 6,127.48.

Headlines from the U.S. session:

• Germany-U.S. yield spreads have narrowed in a EUR-supportive way - Scotiabank
• A multi year downturn in the dollar in the making? - Nomura
• Iraqi OilMin: Agreed with Saudi Arabia on extending OPEC oil output cuts for further 9 months
• Fed’s Kaplan: 3 rate hikes in 2017 is appropriate