Banks pick up steam, lead financials higher

Banks pick up steam, lead financials higher
Shares of U.S. banks topped the list of financial sector gainers Monday, leading the bellwether Financial Select Sector SPDR, which tracks the sector, up almost 2%. Western regional bank Zions /quotes/comstock/15*!zion/quotes/nls/zion (ZION 14.26, +0.68, +5.01%) led the gainers Monday, adding 5.4%. Wells Fargo /quotes/comstock/13*!wfc/quotes/nls/wfc (WFC 25.63, +1.12, +4.57%) , Comerica [s:cma], Marshall and Ilsley [s:mi] and J.P. Morgan Chase /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm/quotes/nls/jpm (JPM 39.50, +0.85, +2.20%) also rose. The KBW Bank ETF rose 1.3%. News was scarce in the U.S. on the banking front, but a strong profit report from the U.K.'s Barclays /quotes/comstock/13*!bcs/quotes/nls/bcs (BCS 22.22, +1.68, +8.18%) and an upgrade for Swiss giant UBS helped buoy the sector. In New York trading, Barclays rose more than 6%, while UBS added more than 3%.