Stocks Rally at the Open, Data Eyed

U.S. Stocks rallied in the early trading on Monday, ahead of U.S. manufacturing data and a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The Dow Jones Industrial Average  lately rose 82.44 points to 13,519.57 and the S&P 500 index gained 8.05 points to 1,448.72. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 13.29 points to 3,129.52.

Greece’s finance minister will submit the 2013 draft budget to Parliament on Monday, as the government resumed negotiations with international creditors over a two-year additional austerity package.

3M Co. said Monday it’ll pay $35 a share to buy ceramic armor maker Ceradyne Inc(CRDN). The purchase price values the Costa Mesa, Calif., company at a premium of 43% over its closing price of $24.43 a share on Friday. The transaction has an aggregate value of about $860 million, or $670 million net of cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and debt acquired,

Half of all adult Americans now own either a tablet computer or a smartphone, and one-third use their mobile devices to view news stories and video clips at least once a week. That’s according to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, which polled more than 9,500 adults from late June to early August.

General Motors Co (GM) is recalling about 41,000 Chevrolet, Pontiac and Saturn cars in the United States because of concerns that a defective plastic part might cause a fuel leak, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.