The Dow Jones Industrials surged 241.97 points to midday Monday at 33,872.58.
The S&P 500 points took on 49.67 points, or 1.3%, to 3,944.75.
The NASDAQ Composite Index leaped 216.01 points, or 2%, to 10,785.31.
That follows a winning week for the three major indexes, with the Dow and S&P 500 posting their best weeks since November. A chunk of those gains came Friday, with the Dow rallying 700 points, while the S&P 500 gathered 2.3% and NASDAQ advanced 2.6%. Those gains were spurred by the latest batch of economic data released Friday.
Monday marks the fifth trading day, reminding investors of a classic Wall Street rule that suggests the market will end the year up if stocks perform well in the first five sessions. The S&P 500 has ended the year positive 83% of the times it ended the first five trading sessions up — and with an average gain of 14%, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
Bank of America double-upgraded shares of Zillow Group to buy from underperform. The stock jumped more than 8% in trading Monday.
Investors will watch for consumer expectations and consumer credit data coming later in the day. They will also watch for December’s consumer price index report coming Thursday and big bank earnings scheduled for Friday.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury recovered, lowering yields to 3.51% from Friday’s 3.56%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices poked ahead 96 cents to $74.73 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices climbed $10.20 to $1,879.90 U.S. an ounce.