Stocks soared on Monday, rebounding after last week's sell-off, as investors watched two big acquisition deals and positive earnings reports and decided to buy recently lowered shares. Volatility has defined market action lately. Last Wednesday, the Dow industrials surged 200 points after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke seemed to imply that the central bank's interest rate-raising campaign was nearly over. But stocks retreated during the next two sessions amid ongoing worries about corporate profits and violence in the Middle East. In Monday's session, oil prices reversed in the afternoon, rising on concerns about a hurricane heading toward the U.S. Gulf coast and comments from the White House that a cease-fire in Lebanon was unenforceable. Light sweet crude for September delivery rose 72 cents to $75.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In acquisition news, hospital owner HCA agreed to a $21 billion buyout from a private equity group. Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said it would buy graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies for $5.4 billion. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 182.67, or 1.7 percent, to 11,051.05. Twenty-nine of the index's 30 components rose, led by Merck, whose shares jumped after the pharmaceutical giant reported quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street estimates. Rival Pfizer also gained. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 20.62, or 1.7 percent, to 1,260.91. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 41.45, or nearly 2.1 percent, to 2,061.84. Eighty-seven of the index's 100 biggest stocks rose. However, shares of AMD fell 4 percent after the world's second-largest computer chip maker announced its acquisition of ATI. The New York Stock Exchange composite index rose 146.80 to 8,099.94. The American Stock Exchange composite index rose 29.82 to 1,921.69. And the Russell 2000 index rose 18.82 to 690.76.
