U.S. stock markets make solid gains

U.S. stocks mounted a modest rally Monday, helping investors recover some of the ground lost after a rough finish last week.

Investors were bracing for another round of discouraging earnings and a third consecutive loss for the stock market. But the market pushed higher from the get-go Monday, receiving a boost from solid earnings from Citigroup and a strong pickup in retail sales last month.

Among the stocks that rose sharply were WebMD, Edwards Lifesciences and Goodrich Petroleum.

A wave of buying in the last half-hour of trading pushed the Nasdaq composite and other indexes to solid gains for the day. It was the market's first finish in the green since April 9.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 0.82 percent, to close at 1,830.61. All ten industry sectors in the S&P 500 increased, led by energy stocks, which rose 1.3 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 146.49 points to 16,173.24. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.57 percent, to 4,022.69.

While they recovered some of their losses from last week, all three indexes remain down for the month and the year. -- AP