U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday as investors cheered an election in Japan and extended a jobs-report rally.

The benchmark S & P 500 index closed at a new all-time high and also posted a new all-time intraday high of 2,143.16. At the close, information technology led the S & P, with health care and utilities lagging.

" What  , Nasdaq ends at 2016 highwe' ve seen in the leadership is what you want to see, ... and what you see lagging is what you want to see," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.

" I' ve been expecting a record close for a while," said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab. " It' s a good thing because it cements this 7-year-old market, which is the second longest in history. "

" I think what we' re seeing is the successful election for [Shinzo] Abe ... is fueling the rally here," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial. " Basically, it' s a post-labor report rally helped by the elections in Japan. "

Abe' s coalition notched a landslide victory for the upper house in Japan' s parliament. Abe had cast the election as a referendum on his " Abenomics" recipe of hyper-easy monetary policy, spending and reform. With signs the strategy is failing, the government plans to compile a post-election stimulus package that could exceed 10 trillion yen ($ 99 billion)

This week, Wall Street will brace itself for an array of speeches from Federal Reserve officials.

" We get bombarded with Fed speak this week just as the fed funds futures market is saying the Fed will not definitively raise rates again until December 2018. The last Fed dots had the expected fed funds rate at 2.4% by the end of 2018 vs 3% seen in March. The disconnect and disbelief continues, " Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, said in a Monday note to clients.

Kansas City Fed President Esther George said the U.S. economy has proven to be " resilient," adding she expects to see " fairly steady pace of growth."

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester is scheduled to speak after the close. Other Fed officials scheduled to speak this week include St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari.

Investors and traders will also digest a slew of economic data sets this week, including the latest jobs opening and labor turnover survey (JOLTS) and wholesale trade data, both due Tuesday, and import-export prices, due Wednesday.

Also on deck this week is the start of earnings season, with Alcoa set to report quarterly results Monday after the close. Later this week, a slew of financial firms will post results, including JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup.

" I' m not expecting anything good [from earnings]," said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors. " The economy is not growing fast enough" and margins " are not getting fatter."

The Fed will also release its latest edition of the Beige Book, a summary of current economic conditions, on Wednesday.

European stocks rose broadly, with the Stoxx 600 index gaining more than 1.6 percent.

In Asia, stocks surged, as the Nikkei 225 rose about 4 percent.

U.S. oil settled 65 cents lower, or 1.43 percent, at $ 44.76 a barrel.

Gold futures for August delivery were settled at $ 1,356.60 per ounce, down $ 1.80.

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