While lingering worries about the outlook for the Federal Reserve's stimulus program generated some selling pressure in afternoon trading on Monday, stocks managed to end the day mostly higher after seeing an early rally on the heels of some upbeat economic data.
Brokerage stocks showed a strong move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index up by 2 percent. With the gain, the index closed just shy of the two-year closing high that it set last Monday.
E*Trade (ETFC), Nomura Holdings (NMR), and Interactive Brokers (IBKR) turned in some of the brokerage sector's best performances.
Significant strength was also visible among natural gas stocks, which moved higher along with the price of the commodity. With natural gas for July delivery climbing $0.142 to $3.875 per million BTUs, the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index advanced by 1.9 percent.
Housing stocks also turned in a strong performance on the heels of a much better than expected homebuilder confidence report, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector rising by 1.6 percent.
Oil service, semiconductor, and software stocks also saw notable strength on the day, although most stocks closed off their highs for the session.
The major averages finished the session well off their best levels of the day but still posted strong gains. The Dow jumped 109.67 points or 0.7 percent to 15,179.85, the Nasdaq advanced 28.58 points or 0.8 percent to 3,452.13 and the S&P 500 climbed 12.31 points or 0.8 percent to 1,639.04.
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