U.S. stocks rose

U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index toward its highest level since July, as technology and financial shares rallied amid data showing that confidence among homebuilders exceeded forecasts.

Stocks rose as a gauge of confidence among U.S. homebuilders rose in January to the highest level in more than four years as sales and buyer traffic improved. U.S. industrial production rebounded in December, reflecting gains in demand for business equipment, automobiles and construction materials. The International Monetary Fund is proposing to raise its lending capacity by as much as $500 billion to insulate the global economy against any worsening of Europe’s debt crisis.

Dow 12,558.10 +76.03 +0.61%, Nasdaq 2,760.66 +32.58 +1.19%, S&P 500 1,304.10 +10.43 +0.81%

Goldman Sachs rose 5.9 percent to $103.48. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein, 57, is cutting costs and focusing on international growth to help offset a slowdown in trading, which contributes most of the firm’s revenue. He has said he wants to prepare for a market rebound, even as he eliminates jobs and adapts to new rules that limit the bank’s ability to invest its own money and make trades for Goldman Sachs’s own account.

Yahoo climbed 2.6 percent to $15.83. Now that co-founder and one-time chief executive officer Yang has cut his leadership ties to Yahoo, newly appointed CEO Scott Thompson has freer rein to unwind the company’s part-ownership of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Yahoo Japan Corp. He may also do a better job mounting a credible threat to Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. in online advertising, said Clayton Moran, an analyst at Benchmark Co.

PulteGroup Inc. and Lennar Corp. added at least 3.7 percent, pacing an advance in homebuilders.

Linear Technology Corp. jumped 9.9 percent to $32.83. The maker of integrated circuits said third-quarter revenue was as much as $317.8 million, compared with the average analyst estimate of $302.5 million.