Stocks End Up; Dow's Best January in 14 Years

Stocks rebounded on Monday as investors returned to stocks after a sharp sell-off on Friday, but yet kept a cautious eye on events unfolding in Egypt.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 68.23 points, or 0.6 percent, to close at about 11891.93, after falling 1.4 percent on Friday. For the month, the Dow gained 314.42 points or 2.72 percent, its best January performance since 1997 and its first January gain in four years.

IBM [IBM 162.00 2.79 (+1.75%) ]was the best performer on the Dow in January, rising 10.38 percent, while Merck [MRK 33.17 0.10 (+0.3%) ]was the worst, falling 7.96 percent.

The S&P 500 gained 9.78 points, or 0.77 percent, to close at 1,286.12. For the month, the broad market index rose 28.48 points, its best January performance since 2006.

Nvidia [NVDA 23.92 0.16 (+0.67%) ] was the best performer on the S&P 500 in January, rising 55.32 percent, while Monster Worldwide [MWW 16.65 0.70 (+4.39%) ] was the worst, falling 29.54 percent.

The Nasdaq rose 13.19 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 2,700.08. For the month, the Nasdaq rose 47.21 points, or 1.78 percent. (more)