A choppy session for stocks ended the day with gains. The Dow added 77, the S&P was up 7 and the Nasdaq rose 4 points.

• Reports out Monday covering construction spending, pending home sales and manufacturing all indicated that a recovery is continuing. The Institute for Supply Management manufacturing reading was the strongest since April 2006.
• A merger in the tool business was announced after the closing bell. Stanley Works has agreed to buy Black & Decker for $4.5 billion in stock.
• Crude settled higher. Benchmark crude for December delivery rose $1.13 to settle at $78.13 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
• Federal health officials say contaminated fresh ground beef caused a possible E. coli outbreak that killed
  two people and sent 16 others to hospitals. The CDC says twenty-eight people may have become ill after eating beef produced by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, N.Y.