US stocks rise, bank shares rally

US stocks rose early Monday, partially recovering from Friday's rout as banking stocks rallied and existing-home sales data kicked off the week's economic data releases.

About 35 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 16,505.91, up 121.33 points (0.74 percent).

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 12.90 (0.66 percent) at 1,970.93, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 34.57 (0.72 percent) at 4,861.79.

The S&P 500 had fallen 1.6 percent Friday after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at zero due to worries about global growth.

Existing-home sales fell in August by 4.8 percent, according to data from the National Association of Realtors, a bigger decline than expected. Other data this week includes durable goods orders for August.

Large banks advanced, with Dow member Goldman Sachs rising 1.1 percent, Citigroup 0.9 percent and Wells Fargo 0.7 percent. Bank stocks had been hit hard by the Fed's decision last week because of the link between higher interest rates and higher profits.

Homebuilder Lennar rose 1.6 percent after reporting that third-quarter net income jumped 25.6 percent to $223.3 million.

Semiconductor company Atmel shot up 16 percent on news it agreed to be acquired by Britain's Dialog Semiconductor for $4.6 billion.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.18 percent from 2.13 percent Friday, while the 30-year advanced to 2.99 percent from 2.93 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.