Applied Materials ( AMAT ) was 4.2% higher and Lam Research (LRCX) was up by 3.8%. US equity benchmarks were rallying on Monday led by gains in the technology and financial sectors as traders digested comments from social networking giant Facebook's ( FB ) chief executive and upcoming inflation data. In equity news, Leucadia National Corporation ( LUK ) was leading the gainers on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, 11.9% higher after saying that it would sell most of its non-financial assets, change its name to Jefferies Financial Group and institute a new share buyback program.