Wall St. rises with energy, materials; Berkshire deal a boost

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks climbed on Monday, bouncing back sharply from last week's losses, boosted by gains in energy and materials shares and optimism over Warren Buffett's latest deal.

Copper rebounded from six-year lows while oil prices also rallied, helping push the S&P 500 energy index <.SPNY> up 2.8 percent and the materials index <.SPLRCM> up 2.3 percent.

Disappointing economic data in China boosted hopes for additional stimulus from Beijing, while Greece and international creditors could wrap up a multi-billion euro bailout accord by Tuesday.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway said it would buy Precision Castparts in a deal valuing the company at $32.3 billion. Precision Castparts' shares jumped as much as 19.4 percent to $231.47, while Berkshire Class B shares dipped 0.2 percent to $143.27.

""It's speculative to take anything away from today's rally. Mostly you see it pronounced in the cyclical sectors ... anything tied to China and the commodities' complex," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 241.35 points, or 1.39 percent, to 17,614.73, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 26.42 points, or 1.27 percent, to 2,103.99 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 61.76 points, or 1.22 percent, to 5,105.30.

U.S. stocks had ended lower on Friday, with the Dow closing down for the seventh straight day, after solid July jobs data pried the door open a little wider for a potential rate hike in September.

With U.S. interest rates near zero for nearly a decade, debt has been cheap. But with the Federal Reserve widely expected to hike rates later this year, merger and acquisition activity has increased.

July was the seventh-strongest month for global deal activity since 1980. Through July, cross-border M&A activity totaled $913.5 billion, up 23 percent from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In other deal news, ammonia maker CVR Partners' deal to buy Rentech Nitrogen Partners for about $533 million sent Rentech soaring 28.1 percent to $13.19.

Twitter rose 8.9 percent to $29.45 after CEO Jack Dorsey joined other insiders in buying more shares and the company also clinched a multiyear partnership with the National Football League.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2,286 to 767, for a 2.98-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,945 issues rose and 829 fell for a 2.35-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The S&P 500 was posting 35 new 52-week highs and 3 lows; the Nasdaq was recording 52 new highs and 79 lows.

(Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Nick Zieminski)

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