US stocks gain on $37.2 bn Berkshire deal

US stocks jumped early Monday following news that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway would acquire aerospace supplier Precision Castparts for $37.2 billion.

About 30 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,546.35, up 172.97 points (1.00 percent).

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 19.71 (0.95 percent) at 2,097.28, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 51.57 (1.02 percent) to 5,095.12.

Berkshire's agreed acquisition of Precision gives Buffett's conglomerate a maker of complex metal components for the aerospace, chemical processing and oil and gas industries.

Precision jumped 19.1 percent, while Berkshire B shares fell 1.3 percent.

Analysts said sentiment was also lifted by reports that Greece and its creditors appeared close to a deal to finalize a third bailout package.

This week's calendar includes a report on US retail sales for July and earnings from Cisco Systems.

Chinese Internet giant Alibaba rose 1.2 percent on news it will pay 28.3 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) for a near-20 percent stake in consumer electronics retailer Suning.

Microblogging company Twitter advanced 3.6 percent as the National Football League announced a deal to deliver official content from the American football league on the Twitter platform.

Apple, which has been in retreat most of the last three weeks, jumped 1.9 percent.

Media companies Disney (+1.1 percent), Time Warner +(2.6 percent) and Viacom (+3.0 percent) rose, as did the solar company, SunEdison (+3.3 percent). All had suffered deep declines last week.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.21 percent from 2.17 percent, while the 30-year advanced to 2.87 percent from 2.83 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.