New York, July 14 (DPA) US stocks rose sharply Monday ahead of a series of quarterly earnings reports from major financial and company earnings.

Financial shares drove the rally, led by Goldman Sachs after a prominent Wall Street analyst gave the bank's stock a 'buy' rating.

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, International Business Machines (IBM), Intel and Google headline the list of major companies set to report their second-quarter earnings in the coming days.

The rally comes as major US indices have closed lower four straight weeks, signalling fears from investors that the country's hoped-for recovery from recession could still be months away.

The gains overshadowed concerns about US lender CIT Group, which said it was seeking to join an emergency government loan programme to survive the ongoing financial crisis. Its stock plummeted more than 20 percent.

The US currency dropped against the euro to 71.49 euro cents from 71.71 euro cents on Friday. The dollar rose against the Japanese currency to 92.84 yen from 92.55 yen.