LONDON – Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Monday, with banks and energy shares leading the gains, as investors returned to riskier assets after a sharp selloff last week that was fanned by worries about slowing economic growth.

Nine of the 11 major S&P sectors advanced in early trading. Energy shares jumped 3.4 percent after losing 7.3 percent over the past week on fears new COVID-19 curbs would hit fuel demand. 

Industrials and banks added 0.7 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

At 10:04 am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 232.69 points, or 0.66 percent, at 35,352.77, the S&P 500 was up 32.79 points, or 0.74 percent, at 4,474.46.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 142.81 points, or 0.97 percent, at 14,857.47, with Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, Amazon.com, Google-owner Alphabet Inc and Tesla Inc all up between 0.6 percent and 2.7 percent.

Elsewhere, shares rose and risk appetite in global markets increased, but worries about the COVID-19 Delta variant hampering economic growth persisted as investors weighed up a possible timeline for tapering monetary stimulus.

After concerns about slower growth dragged stocks and oil prices lower last week, they picked up in Asian and European trading.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 50 countries, was up 0.4 percent at 1040 GMT, recovering after having its biggest weekly fall since June last week.

Europe's STOXX 600 was up 0.6 percent and US stock futures were up about 0.3 percent .

Oil prices rose, breaking their seven-day losing streak. Brent crude was up 3.1 percent and US West Texas Intermediate crude was up 3 percent, after both marked their biggest week of losses in more than nine months last week as markets braced for weakened fuel demand due to a surge in virus infections. read more

In currencies, the dollar index was at 93.311, down 0.2 percent on the day, compared to its nine-month high of 92.734 reached on Friday .

"Following the corrections that we have seen over the last week, it's really a bounceback," said Marco Willner, head of investment strategy at NNIP.

"People are looking at Jackson Hole, people are also looking at Delta variant, so the factors have not changed – it’s a technical bounceback."

PMI survey data showed that business activity in the euro zone grew strongly in August – although fears that new coronavirus strains may lead to renewed restrictions limited the optimism. read more

Activity in Germany's manufacturing and services sectors expanded in August, according to PMI surveys, although the pace of growth fell slightly. read more

"Concerns about the impact of the Delta variant and input shortages remain but have not derailed the rebound thus far," wrote ING senior economist Bert Colijn in a note to clients.

Germany's benchmark 10-year yield was at -0.465 percent, while the US 10-year yield was at 1.2784 percent, having lacked direction over the past week .

The spread of the Delta variant has the potential to upset the timing of the US Federal Reserve's plans to taper its bond-buying program.

Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan, among the US central bank's most forceful supporters for starting to reduce support for the economy, said on Friday he may need to adjust that view if the Delta variant of the coronavirus slows economic growth materially. 

Markets will be paying attention to Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at Jackson Hole this week, although investors looking for clear indications about tapering may be disappointed. 

"One of the key questions will be when the tapering will start. I think it's not a done deal that Powell will make any comments around this at all this week – he might wait til September, maybe even until November, [to] make a major announcement around this one," said NNIP's Willner.

Expectations that the US Fed will ease its monetary stimulus sooner than the European Central Bank have helped the dollar strengthen against the euro in recent weeks, with the euro touching a nine-month low of US$1.1664 on Friday . It was up 0.2 percent at US$1.1719 at 1049 GMT on Monday.

Elsewhere, bitcoin rose above US$50,000 during Asian trading hours and was up 1.9 percent on the day at around US$50,249. The cryptocurrency reached an all-time high of 64,895.22 in April, dropped sharply in May, and has been gradually recovering since mid-July.