The S&P 500 gained as much as 1.8%, its largest intraday climb since March, to erase Monday’s drop -- signaling continued investor bullishness even after the spreading delta variant and fears of lockdown restrictions sent U.S. stocks down at the start of the week.

The benchmark gauge was up 1.5% as of 1:30 p.m. in New York. All of the 11 major industry groups rose, with financials and industrials leading the gains. 

A busy week of earnings will continue on Thursday. AT&T, D.R. Horton, Southwest Air, American Airlines, Abbott Labs and Union Pacific are among the names on deck before the opening bell. Intel, Twitter, Snap and Capital One will post quarterly updates after the market closes.

So far 15% of the S&P 500 has reported earnings, with 88% beating earnings estimates, according to Refinitiv. Of the companies that have reported 84% have topped revenue expectations.

U.S. stock index futures were little changed in early morning trading on Thursday, after the major averages advanced during regular trading to turn positive for the week.

The Nasdaq Composite was the relative outperformer, rising 0.92%.

Wednesday’s gains built on Tuesday’s strong session, and the major averages have now erased the losses from Monday’s sell-off. On Wednesday the yield on the 10-year rose 8 basis points to 1.29%.

Investors will also be watching the weekly jobless claims number from the Department of Labor on Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting the number of first-time filings to be 350,000, down from the prior reading of 360,000. Existing home sales figures will also be released.

To subscribe to real time signal, email to us at futures.coin@gmail.com for details. Sign up today for July subscription.