US stocks were set to gain the most in nearly two weeks late-Monday morning as higher oil prices lifted energy stocks, while investors braced for big banks to kick off the first-quarter earnings season later in the week. JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are scheduled to report earnings on Thursday and could throw some light on the US banking industry’s performance amid a rally in financial shares since the election of President Donald Trump. Oil prices rose more than 1%, with US crude hitting a more than one-month high, supported by a Libyan oilfield shutdown, tension over a US missile strike on Syria and signs that an OPEC-led output cut is helping to clear excess supplies. Investors are keenly watching the quarterly earnings to justify lofty market valuations, following the post-election rally sparked off by bets that Trump would introduce pro-growth policies. Earnings of S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 10.1% in the first three months of the year, the most since t...
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