Dow jumps 145 on hopes for Greek solution

Updated: 9:35 p.m. ET

For a second straight day, stocks pushed higher. Today, the cause was simple: Greece, despite all those protesters and all that tear gas.

The betting on Wall Street is that Greece's parliament will ignore the thousands in the Athens streets and approve in multiple votes this week tough new austerity measures so it won't default on its debt. Meanwhile, it appears that Europe's big banks will basically agree to new terms on the Greek debt that they hold.

So the euro was higher because -- for today, anyway -- Europe wasn't collapsing. And the dollar is falling. Commodity prices are higher, especially crude oil (-CL) and Brent crude. And stocks are higher, led by energy and materials stocks.

Meanwhile, shares of Nike (NKE) were up 10.1% to $89.90 after beating Street estimates on earnings and showing a growing order book. Monster Worldwide (MWW) shares rose 9.8% to $14.90 because of a tout from Oppenheimer & Co. And LinkedIn (LNKD) shares were up 12% to $85.56 because all the investment banks that brought the company public slapped "buy" ratings on the shares.

The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) closed up 145 points, or 1.2%, to 12,189. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) added 17 points, or 1.3%, to 1,297. The Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX), had jumped 41 points, or 1.5%, to 2,729.

The overall market had risen about 1% on Monday, thanks to a big rally in technology shares, especially Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT), which publishes MSN Money.

The gains today and Monday have trimmed the market's losses from their April 29 peaks substantially. At the close on June 15, the Dow had fallen 7.1%, with the S&P 500 down 7.2% and the Nasdaq down 8.4%. As of today's close, the declines have fallen to 4.9% for the Dow and the S&P 500 and 5% for the Nasdaq.

The gains, however, have come on very weak volume, suggesting that real market bears aren't participating. (Another reason is that the July 4 weekend is coming up, and many investors may have gone to the beach.)

Whatever the reason, the market is moving decisively higher for now. How long the rally lasts is anyone's guess.

An IPO coming for Zynga and a settlement for Bank of America

After the close, The Wall Street Journal and others reported that online social gaming company Zynga, maker of the popular FarmVille and CityVille games, may make its initial filings perhaps Wednesday for an initial public, hoping to raise up to $2 billion.

The company is expecting a valuation of between $15 billion and $20 billion. At $20 billion, the valuation would be roughly that of Yahoo (YHOO), now about $19.4 billion.

Separately, Bank of America (BAC) may pay about 8.5 billion to settle claims from a group of 22 big-time investors that lost money on mortgage-backed securities purchased before the U.S. housing collapse. The deal, the largest such settlement to date, would be larger than all the profits Bank of America earned since the financial crisis of 2008 erupted.

The group, which includes money manager BlackRock (BLK), MetLife (MET) and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, holds more than $56 billion in mortgage-backed securities at the center of the dispute. Bank of America rose 1.1% after hours to $10.94. It closed at $10.82, down 0.3% in regular trading.

A rising market amid weak reports
Perhaps the most amazing aspect of today's rally was that investors were apparently ignoring a decidedly mixed report on home prices via the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index and a downbeat report on consumer confidence from The Conference Board.

The Case-Shiller report offered two views of home prices in the 20 markets it surveys. Prices rose slightly from March to April. But they were also down 4% or so from a year ago. The uptick from March to April may reflect the start of a spring buying season. The decline from a year ago represents the continuing overhang of foreclosures on the U.S. market.

The bottom line is probably this: Yes, there is some movement in the housing market nationally. But, in many markets, real estate is a mess.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to a lower-than-expected reading of 58.5 from May’s level of 61.7. Economists had forecast a largely unchanged reading of 60.7 in June after May's initial level of 60.8.

"We have a fairly weak economy with little to no job growth," Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, told Bloomberg News. "With consumers so worried about their job prospects, I’m not so sure that we can count on demand picking up."

Crude oil, gold move higher
Crude oil settled up $2.28 to $92.89 this afternoon. Brent crude, the benchmark North Sea oil, was up $2.52 to $108.45.

The rebound helped energy shares move higher. Exxon Mobil (XOM) was up 2.2% to $79.63. Chevron (CVX) added 1.5% to $100.35. Schlumberger (SLB) jumped 4.6% to $84.35, and Diamond Offshore (DO) rose 0.9% to $68.10.

Meanwhile, gold (-GC) settled up $3.80 to $1,500.20 an ounce. Silver (-SI) added 5.3 cents to $33.64 an ounce. Copper was up 5.7 cents to $4.108 a pound.

The gains helped Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) rise 3.6% to $50.44. U.S. Steel (X) added 3% to $43.31.

Energy prices -- New York close
			Tues.			Mon.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil (-CL)			$92.89			$90.61			-9.55%			1.65%
(per barrel)
Heating oil (-HO)			$2.8257			$2.7649			-7.45%			11.09%
(per gallon)
Natural gas (-NG)			$4.3570			$4.2560			-6.62%			-1.09%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline (-RB)			$2.8896			$2.8075			-8.28%			17.79%
(per gallon)
Brent crude			$108.78			$105.99			-6.81%			14.81%
(per barrel)
Retail gasoline			$3.5510			$3.5650			-6.06%			15.59%
(per gallon; AAA)

Caterpillar, IBM power the Dow
The blue chips were led on a percentage basis by heavy construction maker Caterpillar (CAT), up 3% to $103.84, with McDonald's (MCD) up 2.5% to $84.35 and Home Depot (HD) up 2.4% to $36.06. Caterpillar, IBM (IBM), McDonald's, Exxon and Chevron contributed more than 80 points to the Dow's gain.

Nike, Monster Worldwide  and Halliburton (HAL) , up 5.3% to $48.69, led the S&P 500.

Chinese online travel company Ctrip.com International (CTRP), First Solar (FSLR) and Fastenal (FAST) led the Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX.X). But 42% of the index's 34-point gain to 2,286 came from five stocks: Oracle (ORCL), Apple, Google (GOOG), Microsoft and Qualcomm (QCOM).

Accenture to join S&P 500
Accenture (ACN) climbed 3.2% to $59.65. The world's second-largest technology- consulting firm will replace Wisconsin banking company Marshall & Ilsley (MI) in the S&P 500 after the close of trading on July 5. Marshall & Ilsley is being acquired by the Bank of Montreal (BMO).

First BanCorp (FBP) gained 20.4% to $4.36. The Puerto Rico lender said two funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management agreed to buy a 24.9% stake for $175.5 million. The company also agreed to sell $164 million of shares to institutional investors and other private equity firms.

First Solar gained 6.8% to $124.61. The big maker of thin-film solar modules has taken on a "robust project opportunity" that will insulate it from further price declines, Jefferies wrote in a note.

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Tues.			Mon.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.03%			0.01%			-40.00%			-75.00%
5-year Treasury note			1.60%			1.44%			-5.27%			-20.68%
10-year Treasury note			3.05%			2.93%			-0.16%			-7.87%
30-year Treasury bond			4.33%			4.28%			2.78%			-0.66%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			75.49			75.828			1.06%			-4.79%
British pound			$1.60			$1.5995			-2.61%			2.77%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.63			£0.63			2.68%			-2.70%
Euro in dollars			$1.43			$1.42			-0.30%			7.56%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.70			€ 0.70			0.30%			-7.02%
U.S. $ in yen			80.87			80.39			-0.97%			-0.65%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.48			6.47			-0.14%			-1.86%
yuan
Canada dollar			$1.014			$1.013			-1.65%			1.36%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$0.986			$0.986			1.86%			-1.34%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold (-GC)			$1,500.20			$1,496.40			-2.38%			5.54%
(per troy ounce)
Copper (-HG)			$4.092			$4.052			-2.05%			-7.98%
(per pound)
Silver (-SI)			$33.6380			$33.5850			-12.18%			8.73%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat (-ZW)			$6.4025			6.2275			-18.15%			-19.39%
(per bushel)
Corn (-ZC)			$6.8300			6.6075			-8.63%			9.72%
(per bushel)
Cotton			$1.6091			1.62			1.41%			11.12%
(per pound)
Coffee			$2.5790			2.5015			-2.53%			7.23%
Crude oil (-CL)			$92.89			$90.61			-9.55%			1.65%
(per barrel)