By Bill Rigby
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks surged to fresh 16-month highs on Monday after mobile phone maker Motorola Inc. MOT.N delivered better-than-expected results and an upbeat sales forecast, reinforcing investors' faith that corporate America will deliver strong earnings reports this week.
"The fail-safe for this market is to recognize that the economic recovery is continuing and it is especially beneficial to profits," said Milton Ezrati, senior economic strategist at money manager Lord Abbett & Co. "Absent other news, or something to worry about, it rises."
The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 92.89 points, or 0.96 percent, at 9,767.57 at midday. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX added 8.93 points, or 0.86 percent, at 1,046.99. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 18.12 points, or 0.95 percent, at 1,933.43.
That marked fresh 16-month highs for the Dow and S&P 500, and a 19-month high for the Nasdaq.
Volume was very light, in line with expectations for trading on the Columbus Day holiday, when the U.S. Treasury bond market is closed, and many U.S. workers stay at home.
Advancing stocks outnumbered decliners by about 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange and 7 to 3 on the Nasdaq.
With no economic data scheduled for Monday, investors are focusing on the flood of third-quarter corporate earnings reports due this week.
Among the first to trickle in, Motorola was the New York Stock Exchange's most heavily traded stock on Monday, up 20 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $13.99 after the world's No. 2 mobile phone maker posted quarterly profit twice Wall Street estimates and forecast stronger-than-expected sales in its current fourth quarter.
Manufacturing conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. HON.N led the Dow in gains, up $1.40, or 5 percent, to $28.90 after its late Friday announcement that it would buy Canada's Silent Witness Enterprises Ltd. SILW.O SWE.TO , a video monitoring technology firm.
Computer Associates CA.N was one of the leading technology shares in the S&P 500, up $1.41, or 6 percent, to $24.91, after Lehman Brothers raised its rating on the company to "overweight" from "equal weight."
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