U.S. Stocks Jump, Investors Hopeful on Eurozone

U.S. stocks jumped on Monday as investors remained optimistic about the upcoming Eurozone bailout and U.S. corporate earnings came in better than expected.

The S&P 500 Index rose 15.94 points, or 1.29 percent, to close at 1,254.19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 104.83, or 0.89 percent, to close at 11,913.62. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.35 percent.

The major earnings of the day is Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), a blue-chip stock that also acts as a bellwether for the global economy. Shares of Caterpillar closed up 5.01 percent.

The company reported a 44 percent increase in earnings and record revenues. It also offered strong guidance.

Over the weekend, a Eurozone summit still did not produce any concrete details on the upcoming bailout package for the European debt crisis; authorities simply promised to unveil details at a second summit on Wednesday.

However, the promise was good enough for investors, who have bid up global risk assets in the past three weeks largely on hopes of a big bailout package from Europe.

“Global markets brushed aside the utter lack of agreement at the first European summit held this weekend,” said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist for The Bank of New York Mellon.