NEW YORK — U.S. stocks extended three weeks of gains Monday as a weaker dollar boosted materials and hopes for further central-bank stimulus kept the market edging higher.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 31.49 points, or 0.3 percent, at 11,164.05. Entering the month’s final week of trading, the Dow is up 3.5 percent for October, buoyed by hopes that the Federal Reserve will take further steps to stimulate the economy at its meeting next week.
“That’s what’s driving the dollar down,” said Scott Armiger, portfolio manager of Christiana Bank & Trust.
While that’s helping stocks right now, he worried about the longer- term effects of the Fed’s expected resumption of bond purchasing.
“It’s a pain reliever,” he said. “It will wear off or we’ll run out of pain relievers, and then we’ll be left with a huge deficit.”
Materials and industrials led the Dow on Monday, as a weak dollar boosted companies with more exports. DuPont gained 1.9 percent, Alcoa rose 1.3 percent, and Caterpillar added 0.9 percent.
However, financial companies lagged as questions continued regarding major banks’ foreclosure practices. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech Monday that federal banking regulators expect preliminary results of their review of the nation’s latest foreclosure troubles to be ready next month.
The Nasdaq Composite closed up 11.46, or 0.5 percent, to 2,490.85. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 2.54, or 0.2 percent, to 1,185.62.
Stocks rose and the dollar weakened after finance ministers at a meeting of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations vowed over the weekend to avoid “competitive devaluation” of their currencies while curbing external imbalances, in a bid to generate more balanced global economic growth.
However, the G20 didn’t announce specific targets for achieving its goal of “rebalancing” the world’s economy away from an overreliance on U.S. consumers buying imported goods.
