Extending the strong upward move seen last Friday, stocks have moved mostly higher over the course of morning trading on Monday. The major averages have climbed firmly into positive territory, reaching three-month intraday highs.
The markets continue to benefit from a positive reaction to the Labor Department's monthly employment report, which showed stronger than expected job growth in the month of July.
Buying interest has also been generated by news that Greece and its international creditors have agreed on the need to strengthen policy efforts and meet the country's bailout conditions. Lenders are set to resume discussions with Greek authorities in early September.
Gold stocks have moved sharply higher on the day, benefiting from an increase by the price of precious metal. With gold for December delivery climbing $7.40 to $1,616.70 an ounce, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index is up by 3.1 percent.
Significant strength is also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 2.3 percent gain being posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. Steel, tobacco, and airline stocks are also posting notable gains, moving higher along with most of the major sectors.
The major averages have moved roughly sideways in recent trading, hovering near their best levels of the day. The Dow is up 82.19 points or 0.6 percent at 13,178.36, the Nasdaq is up 23.92 points or 0.8 percent at 2,991.82 and the S&P 500 is up 7.70 points or 0.6 percent at 1,398.69.
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