Stocks rose Monday, with the Dow industrials hitting their highest point in more than 13 months, on a strong U.S. housing report and a rally in commodities. Stocks had retreated during the previous three sessions, ending last week mixed, as investors sold some stocks after pushing the Dow to a more than one-year high. But Monday"s news brought a wave of buying amid light trading volume, which is expected to lighten each session leading up to Thursday"s Thanksgiving holiday. U.S. existing-home sales in October jumped to the highest level since February 2008, an industry group reported. Sales rose 10.1 percent to a higher-than-expected annual rate of 6.1 million units. The strong sales were largely driven by buyers trying to beat a deadline for a government tax-credit program. Investors ignored the Chicago Federal Reserve"s index on U.S. economic activity, which reflected the fragility of the economic recovery and signaled the country could be headed for another recession. The U.S. dollar fell versus the euro and gained versus the yen. Its weakness against the euro boosted dollar-traded commodities like oil and gold. Light sweet crude oil for January delivery rose 9 cents to $77.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for December delivery rose $18 to $1,164.70 an ounce after hitting a record high of $1,174 earlier in the session. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 132.79, or 1.3 percent, to 10,450.95. Twenty-eight of the index"s 30 components gained, led by Boeing, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Procter & Gamble, Caterpillar, 3M, and IBM. Financial stocks American Express and J.P. Morgan Chase also rose. Hewlett-Packard rallied ahead of its quarterly results posted after the market"s close. The broader Standard & Poor"s 500 index rose 14.86, or 1.4 percent, to 1,106.24. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 29.97, or 1.4 percent, to 2,176.01. The New York Stock Exchange composite index rose 101.86 to 7,186.33. The American Stock Exchange composite index rose 21.49 to 1,803.56. And the Russell 2000 index rose 10.13 to 594.81.
