NEW YORK?Wall Street stocks jumped Monday, buoyed by corporate optimism and a mixed bag of economic data as well as speculation that eurozone nations may reveal a bailout deal to help debt-hit Greece.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 78.53 points (0.76 percent) to close at 10,403.79, after ending the week slightly higher Friday amid upwardly revised data on US economic growth.
The Nasdaq composite gained 35.31 points (1.58 percent) to 2,273.57 while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up 11.22 points (1.02 percent) to 1,115.71.
"The bulls are beginning the new month in grand fashion, finding some energy from a plethora of global merger and acquisition announcements, suggesting confidence in the corporate sector is growing," analysts at Charles Schwab & Co. said in a client note.
Among the deals announced were an agreement by British insurer Prudential to purchase American International Group's Asian arm for about $35.5 billion.
German pharmaceutical firm Merck KGaA unveiled its plans to acquire Millipore Corporation, a US-based biotechnology firm, for $7.2 billion while Japan?s Astellas Pharma Inc launched a hostile bid for US firm OSI Pharmaceuticals.
Wall Street also mulled mixed economic data showing higher consumer spending, lackluster personal income and slower manufacturing expansion.
Personal expenditures increased 0.5 percent while income edged up only 0.1 percent in January, the slowest growth in four months, the Commerce Department said in a report.
Most experts had expected both spending and income to rise 0.4 percent in the first month of the year.
In other data, the US manufacturing sector grew for the seventh consecutive month in February, but at a slower clip than expected, according to the Institute for Supply Management.
Construction spending in January decreased 0.6 percent month-over-month, as expected, although the dip marked a slowdown from the 1.2 percent decline posted in December.
"On balance, continuing slow incremental strength in the economy should set up a decent first-quarter earnings-reporting season," said Frederic Dickson, chief market strategist of D.A. Davidson & Co.
Andrea Kramer of Schaeffer's Investment Research said "bulls across the globe rejoiced on speculation that eurozone countries may reveal a bailout deal to help Greece alleviate its growing debt concerns."
The EU's top budget enforcer said Greece should "announce additional measures in the coming days" to bring about a drastic reduction in its public deficit, the highest in the eurozone at an estimated 12.7 percent of output.
AIG rose 4.08 percent to $25.78 on news of the sale of its Asian unit AIA to Prudential. The deal allows government-rescued AIG to repay a huge chunk of its bailout debt.
Millipore jumped 11.11 percent to $104.90 following the deal with Merck.
Goldman Sachs rose 0.12 percent to $156.54 after its board of directors rejected calls from shareholders that the investment bank probe what some believed were excessive compensation to executives.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond rose to 3.606 percent from 3.595 percent Friday while that on the 30-year bond to 4.557 percent from 4.529.
