Stocks gain on earnings, deals and hope for Greece

NEW YORK -- Signs that the economy is indeed strengthening gave investors a surge of optimism and sent stocks sharply higher.

The Dow Jones industrials have soared almost 170 points Tuesday on upbeat earnings reports and news on corporate deals. Investors who have been uneasy in recent weeks about economic problems overseas were able to put aside their concerns for the time being. They focused instead on the domestic economy.

Major indexes all rose more than 1 percent. The Dow closed up 169 at 10,268, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 19 to 1,094 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 30 to 2,214.

Advancing issues outran losers by 5 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.08 billion shares.