U.S. stocks rose, helping the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index erase more than half of last week’s loss, as analysts recommended Bank of America Corp. and Lowe’s Cos. beat earnings projections. Oil climbed to a six-month high above $59 a barrel, while Treasuries fell.

Bank of America gained 9.9 percent after Citigroup Inc. said it may have sold $4 billion in shares and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. put the lender on its “conviction buy” list. Financial stocks led the advance after the cost of borrowing in dollars between banks dropped the most in two months as credit markets continued to thaw. Lowe’s, the home-improvement retailer, added 8.1 percent.

The S&P 500 jumped 3 percent to 909.7 at 4:04 p.m. in New York, its steepest gain in two weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 235.44 points, or 2.9 percent, to 8,504.8. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rallied 2.4 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.4 percent. India’s benchmark index soared a record 17 percent after the prime minister’s party won nationwide elections. Ten stocks rose for each that fell on the New York Stock Exchange.

The S&P 500 slid 5 percent last week, erasing its 2009 gain, after the index reached the priciest level relative to earnings in seven months, companies from Ford Motor Co. to U.S. Bancorp sold shares to raise capital and General Motors Corp. said bankruptcy is probable.

(Bloomberg.com)