Stocks rise to start the month

Stocks on Wall Street lost some of their early gains Monday but finished ahead after new economic data revealed a jump in manufacturing and construction spending.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.4%, up 65.36 points to 14,974.96. The Standard & Poor's 500 index stock rose 0.5%, up 8.68 points to 1,614.96, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.9%, up by 31.24 points to 3,434.49, as the markets closed.

Increases in manufacturing activity and construction spending boosted investor confidence in the morning and sent shares rocketing early in the day.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was up to 2.49% from 2.48% on Thursday, while the price of gold was rebounding, up 2.3% to about $1,252 an ounce.

Benchmark oil for August delivery was up $1.33 to $97.89 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Stocks fluctuated Friday to end the day mixed as investors took a breather after the first three-day winning streak for the Dow Jones industrial average since late April.

The Dow closed down 0.8% to 14,909.60. The broader S&P 500 index ended down 0.4% to 1,606.28. The Nasdaq composite ended the session modestly higher at 3,403.25.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index closed up 1% at 6,307.78 while Germany's DAX 30 index ended up 0.3% at 7,983.92. France's CAC 40 was closed at 0.8% to 3,767.48.

Asian stocks traded mixed Monday after China's manufacturing weakened in June amid fears of a credit crunch. China's benchmark Shanghai composite index rose 0.3% to 1,984.92 while Seoul's Kospi lost 0.4% to 1,855.73. The regional heavyweight, Tokyo's Nikkei 225, rose 1.3% to 13,852.50.

HSBC's monthly purchasing managers index for China declined to 48.2 points from May's 49.2 on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 show a contraction. A separate measure by the state-sanctioned China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing declined to 50.1 from May's 50.8.

Contributing: The Associated Press