US stocks charged higher Monday as Wall Street kicked off a new month energized by strong earnings from oil giant ExxonMobil and a robust reading on US manufacturing activity. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 118.20 points (1.17%) to close at 10,185.53, as stocks bounced back from a rocky week and losses for the month of January.

The Nasdaq composite advanced 23.85 points (1.11%) to 2,171.20 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index added 15.32 points (1.43%) to 1,089.19.

Traders "seemed encouraged by a stronger-than-forecast fourth quarter report from ExxonMobil," said Elizabeth Harrow at Schaeffer's Investment research.

"A dose of healthy economic news didn't hurt, either."

ExxonMobil beat most forecasts with a quarterly profit of 6.05 billion dollars, helped by higher oil production and prices.

On the economic front, the Institute of Supply Management said its US manufacturing index, also known as the purchasing managers index, climbed to 58.4% in January, the best number since 2004 and well ahead of the 50% that indicates growth.
"This was an unambiguously strong report, and it suggests that the US manufacturing sector is continuing to ride the high waves being generated by the recent recovery in US and global economic conditions," said Millan Mulraine at TD Securities.

A separate report showed US consumer spending edged up 0.2% in December, and personal incomes increased twice as much, 0.4%. Although the pace of consumer spending was below expectations, this was offset in part by an upward revision to November data.

Among stocks in focus, ExxonMobil paced the winners with a gain of 2.72% to 66.18 dollars after its forecast-topping profits.

In finance, Morgan Stanley rallied 2.91% to 27.56 dollars after new chief executive James Gorman was quoted as telling the Financial Times the Wall Street bank would be hiring hundreds of new traders under an expansion plan.

Johnson & Johnson rose 0.37% to 63.09 dollars as the health care giant said its Cordis division reached an agreement under which Boston Scientific would pay 1.725 billion dollars to settle a patent dispute over stents. Boston Scientific fell 2.43% to 8.42 dollars.

Gannett meanwhile plunged 7.0% to 15.02 dollars after the newspaper group reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results.

Internet giant Amazon.com slumped 5.21% to 118.87 dollars after news that US book publisher Macmillan decided to raise its e-book prices in a move that threatens to shake up the market and is being strongly opposed by Amazon.

Bonds retreated. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond rose to 3.654% from 3.609% Friday while that on the 30-year bond increased to 4.569% from 4.510%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.