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Stocks rise as hopes for earnings grow

Stocks rose Monday as investors grew more hopeful that corporate earnings would continue to improve and as a weak dollar drove oil higher.

Traders looked to another busy week of earnings reports. Investors will look for clues about a possible pickup in consumer spending when companies including Kellogg Co., Procter & Gamble Co. and Visa Inc. report earnings.

The energy and insurance industries also will be in focus throughout the week with ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp. as well as Aetna Inc. and MetLife Inc. scheduled to release quarterly results.

In early trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 91.97, or 0.9 percent, to 10,064.15. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 11.37, or 1.1 percent, to 1,090.97, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 26.37, or 1.2 percent, to 2,180.84.

Four stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 209.6 million shares compared with 265.4 million shares traded at the same point Friday.

The Dow fell 0.2 percent last week, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.7 percent.

Bond prices fell as stocks rose and as the government prepared to auction more than $120 billion in debt this week. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.55 percent from 3.49 percent late Friday.

The dollar fell against most other major currencies, while gold rose.

Crude oil rose 82 cents to $81.32 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 8.65, or 1.4 percent, to 609.51.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.8 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.9 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.8 percent.