By Riva Gold 

Global stocks steadied Monday as market focus shifted from the White House to this week's meeting of major oil producers and updates from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 76 points, or 0.4%, to 20881 shortly after the opening bell. The S&P 500 gained 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4%. The moves come after U.S. indexes recovered from a midweek drop with their best day in nearly a month on Friday.

The Stoxx Europe 600 edged up less than 0.1%, while markets in Hong Kong and Japan closed higher, echoing the recent rebound on Wall Street.

Stocks had fallen last week amid concerns that uncertainty around the Trump administration could derail plans for tax cuts, regulation and infrastructure spending, but markets quickly pared losses, ending the week just a touch lower.

"It's quite encouraging how we bounced back from that wobble last week," said Ian Williams, strategist at brokerage Peel Hunt. "It underlines very strong bottom-up corporate earnings performance across all major developed markets ... that's been a big factor offsetting geopolitical concerns," he said.

Of the 95% of S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far for the first quarter, 75% have beat earnings per share estimates, according to FactSet.

"It's largely an improvement in the economy," said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors.

On Monday, a climb in oil prices and Chinese iron-ore futures boosted commodity-linked stocks, supporting shares of energy companies and miners.

Brent crude oil rose 0.5% to $53.89 a barrel, touching its highest level in a month ahead of Thursday's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, where many expect an extension to ongoing production cuts. Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih said Sunday that oil producers are enthusiastic about extending crude output cuts by nine months.

Stock investors have been watching the oil price this year, but it hasn't had the same close ties to wider stock markets it had in early 2016, when it fell below $30 a barrel and briefly moved in lockstep with the S&P 500.

"I think $40-60 [a barrel] is a reasonably good sweet spot markets are comfortable with," said Mr. Orlando. It is a level where frackers can make money, but not so high that it is overly inflationary or reduces consumption, he said.

In Europe Monday, technology, banks and auto shares fell, keeping wider gains in check. Shares of Italian and Spanish lenders came under pressure, while yields on 10-year Spanish debt rose to 1.597% from 1.555% Friday after Spain's Socialists re-elected a former party leader who had taken a hard line against conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, raising the chance of new parliamentary elections within a year.

Greek yields fell to 5.543% from 5.642% amid expectations the Eurogroup will ratify the end of the latest review of Greece's bailout, while German bund yields edged up to 0.396% from 0.364% and Treasurys were steady at 2.246% from 2.243%. Yields move inversely to prices.

The WSJ Dollar Index edged down 0.1% following its worst week since July 2016, with the British pound down 0.3% at $1.2993, but the euro up 0.2% at $1.1231 after its best week in 15 months.

Many investors will be watching for minutes from the Federal Reserve's May policy meeting, due Wednesday, as well as a raft of speeches from Fed officials this week for any hints at when it might start to reduce its $4.5 trillion balance sheet and how that could affect the course of interest rates. Investors currently see a 78.5% chance of a rate rise in June, according to fed-fund futures tracked by CME Group.

In corporate news, shares of Switzerland's Clariant rose 8% after it reached an agreement to merge with Huntsman in an all-stock deal announced Monday that would create a chemicals giant worth about $14 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported on the talks Sunday.

Shares of aerospace and defense companies outperformed in the U.S., while shares of Ford Motor rose 1.4% following news Jim Hackett has been named Ford's new chief executive.

Earlier, Asian stocks rose as last week's global worries about the U.S. political landscape continued to ease. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average climbed 0.5%, led by steel, energy and machinery companies. Data showed Japanese exports rose 7.5% in April, advancing for a fifth straight month.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.9% to its highest close since 2015, while South Korea's Kospi gained 0.7%, ending at a new record. Investors largely shrugged off further missile tests by North Korea over the weekend.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.8% after its worst performance in months, helped by a rebound in bank shares and commodity prices.

Stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen gave up early gains, however, amid fears of a regulatory clampdown over brokerages' shadow-banking business, shedding 0.5% and 1.4%, respectively. Financials slipped after authorities slapped penalties on a broker over alleged fake bond transactions.

Ese Erheriene, Yifan Xie, Kosaku Narioka, Paul Hannon, Margherita Stancati and Jeannette Neumann contributed to this article.

Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2017 09:55 ET (13:55 GMT)