Bank Gains Lift Wall Street

Updated from 4:13 p.m. EST

Stocks in the U.S. finished Monday with gains as the financials and the homebuilders led Wall Street higher a day ahead of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting of 2007.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 101.45 points, or 0.7%, to 13,727.03, and the S&P 500 was better by 11.30 points, or 0.8%, at 1515.96. The Nasdaq rose 12.79 points, or 0.5%, to 2718.95.

Among the headliners, Switzerland's UBS (UBS Quote - Cramer on UBS - Stock Picks) reached a deal to get a capital infusion worth more than $11 billion from investors in Singapore and the Middle East, allowing stockholders to look past its announcement that it will write down an additional $10 billion to reflect declines in its subprime positions.

Shares of UBS were up 2.3% to $51.66.

Another winner in the financial space was JPMorgan (JPM Quote - Cramer on JPM - Stock Picks), which improved 2.9% to $47.42 after being the subject of a positive report in Barron's over the weekend.

Elsewhere, bond insurer MBIA (MBI Quote - Cramer on MBI - Stock Picks) soared 13% to $33.95 on word it will get $1 billion in capital from the private-equity firm Warburg Pincus.

Those gains helped the broader sector make headway. The KBW Bank Index was up 2.8%, and the NYSE Financial Sector Index climbed 1.8%. The Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index advanced 2.5%.

The financials have been the market's primary focus for months, and traders are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the Fed gathering Tuesday, when the central bank is widely expected to cut the fed funds target rate by at least 25 basis points from the current 4.50%.

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