Signs of Healing in Manufacturing Lift Stocks (ext: ABCNews/TheStreet)

Positive reports on manufacturing, housing and banking sent stocks sharply higher Monday, hurling the Standard & Poor's 500 index past 1,000 for the first time since early November. All the major indexes rose more than 1 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which jumped 115 points.

The gains were spread across industry groups. The manufacturing data and rising commodity prices helping to lift energy and material stocks, while stronger earnings reports from European banks lifted shares of financial companies.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 114.95, or 1.3 percent, to 9,286.56. The S&P 500 index rose 15.15, or 1.5 percent, to 1,002.63. It was the first finish above 1,000 since early November.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 30.11, or 1.5 percent, to 2,008.61, its first close above 2,000 since October.
Still, the market is keeping watch on unemployment levels and consumer spending, as well as rising commodity prices and interest rates that could outpace the economy's recovery.

In other trading, oil, gold and other commodities rose. Commodities traders were heartened by news that manufacturing in China and Europe is expanding, a sign of support for industrial materials like copper. Copper prices, which have nearly doubled this year thanks in large part to unrelenting demand from China, hit a 10-month high.
Light, sweet crude soared $2.13 to settle at $71.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.