Banks Butter Up Stocks

Updated with Treasuries, stock and commodity prices.

Banks led the major indices more than 2% higher Monday as Wall Street prepared for an onset of second-quarter earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 184.16 points, or 2.3%, at 8331.68, while the S&P 500 tacked on 21.92 points, or 2.5%, to 901.05. The Nasdaq Composite gained 37.18 points, or 2.1%, to 1793.21.

Financials rallied, with the KBW Bank index rising 6.5% after Meredith Whitney Advisory Group upgraded Goldman Sachs(GS Quote) to buy. Bank of America(BAC Quote) and JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote) rose 8.3% and 6.4%, respectively, on the Dow.

Stocks moved lower last week after discouraging data blurred the view of the economic recovery, but traders appeared optimistic Monday as a wave of quarterly reports approached.

The focus will not be necessarily on earnings, but sales and sales growth as well as corporate comments about the economic environment, wrote Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates. "Further correction in stocks or a rebound should be answered by next weekend," he said, adding that "this week is likely to be a do [or] die week for stocks and we will act accordingly."

Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James, makes a case for not getting too bearish based on the pattern stocks followed in 2003. The S&P bottomed in March slightly below 800 and rallied into the third week of June, trading to slightly above 1000, says Saut. "And then we basically went sideways throughout the summer, and stocks re-energized in September of that year and put on about 15% to break out above the high," he says.