US stocks opened with modest gains on Monday as investors turned their focus to a busy earnings calendar and the upcoming policy meeting of the US Federal Reserve, while gold surged past the $5,000-an-ounce mark for the first time.The S&P 500 rose 0.4% in early trade, coming off its second consecutive weekly loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 184 points, or 0.4%, while the Nasdaq composite advanced 0.3% by mid-morning trading.Airline stocks traded slightly lower after thousands of flights were cancelled due to a massive winter storm stretching from the Rockies to the US East Coast. Shares of Delta Air Lines and United Airlines were down 1.2% each.USA Rare Earth, an Oklahoma-based critical minerals miner, jumped 25% after receiving a boost from a US government investment, highlighting continued policy support for strategic supply chains.Safe-haven demand pushed precious metals sharply higher. Gold climbed 2% to breach $5,000 an ounce for the first time, while silver surged 8.6% to around $110 per ounce, extending gains seen amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty.Natural gas futures rose another 2.2% as colder weather followed the winter storm, which dumped heavy snowfall in several regions and disrupted power supplies.Investors are also closely watching the US Federal Reserve, which meets later this week to decide on interest rates. Most expect policymakers to keep rates unchanged after cutting them at the final three meetings of 2025.Market attention this week will remain on corporate earnings, including results from United Airlines, Boeing, General Motors, Meta, Microsoft and Apple, with investors assessing the potential impact of recent US tariff policies.Global cues were mixed. European markets edged higher, while Asian markets were weaker. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.8% after the yen rebounded against the US dollar amid speculation of possible government intervention. The dollar slipped to 153.83 yen from 155.01 yen, after trading near 158 yen last week.
