Wall Street continued to rise Monday, as investors looked to build on last week's momentum.
Major indexes were sent to their highest levels of the year Friday, as investors were encouraged by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's declaration Friday that the economy is on the verge of recovery.
And investors will digest plenty of data on housing and the consumers this week to determine if Bernanke's upbeat prediction can be backed up by fundamentals. Economists expected that the U.S. Commerce Department may report this Wednesday that purchases of new U.S. houses rose 1.6 percent in July to 390,000, the highest level since November.
Energy and raw material stocks led the market higher, as copper rallied and oil traded near a 10-month high.
The Dow Jones rose 67.33 to 9,573.29. Broader indexes also went higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 7.77 to 1,033.90 and the Nasdaq rose 12.15 to 2,033.05.
