Stocks surged Tuesday as investors welcomed Alcoa's better-than-expected profit report and a well-received auction of Greek debt that lifted global markets and strengthened the euro currency. Investors are hoping to see that corporate profits have continued despite recent concerns about the pace of the U.S. economic recovery and the European debt crisis. Those worries sent the three major indexes down more than 15 percent in two months. But in the last week, stocks have rebounded, with the major indexes jumping 5 percent last week to post the biggest weekly gains in a year. In U.S. economic news, the trade deficit widened unexpectedly to $42.3 billion in May from $40.3 billion the previous month, the government reported. Another report showed the government ran a budget deficit of $68 billion in June, bringing the deficit for the first nine months of the government's fiscal year to $1 trillion, down slightly from last year but still staggeringly high. The U.S. dollar fell versus the euro, posting a two-month low in intra-day trading. The dollar also fell versus the yen. Light sweet crude oil for August delivery rose $2.12 to $77.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold gained $17 to $1,215.70 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 146.75, or 1.4 percent, to 10,363.02. Aluminum giant Alcoa reported higher quarterly sales and profits that surpassed estimates late Monday, and its shares rose 1.2 percent. Financial firms J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and American Express each rose about 3 percent. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 16.59, or 1.5 percent, to 1,095.34. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 43.67, or 2 percent, to 2,242.03.
