By Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. Financial stocks rallied sharply on high volume in preopen trade as investors cheered early reports of strong consumer spending for the holiday season and reports decision on how to support the European economy.
Bank of America BAC +6.19% was most active in preopen trade, adding 5.2%, while Citigroup Inc. C +5.71% , J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM +4.46% , Morgan Stanley Inc. MS +6.79% and Regions Financial RF +5.15% all rose at least 5%.
U.S. stock futures surged on Monday.But strategists warned that the rebounds were overdue from a technical perspective and may not point the way to a sustained bounce. The S&P 500 Index on Friday fell for a seventh session. Read U.S. stock market report on MarketWatch
In Europe, officials reportedly have agreed on how to leverage a key rescue fund, while Germany and France are looking at how to deepen fiscal integration in the euro zone.
Finance ministers from the euro zone were slated to meet Tuesday and were expected to agree to rules for borrowing against the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), as well as guidelines for intervening in the euro-zone bond markets and providing credit lines to governments, according to a Reuters report Sunday. Read coverage of euro-zone on MarketWatch
Greg Morcroft is MarketWatch's financial editor in New York.
