Investing.com -- Stocks on the U.S. equities markets soared on Monday, amid a stronger dollar, the possibility of expanded quantitative easing in China and a flurry of merger and acquisition activity.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Composite Index each surged more than 1.20%, marking the first two-day winning streak for both in more than a month. The NASDAQ Composite Index posted strong gains, as well, rising more than 1% on the penultimate day of trading in March.
The Dow hovered near the 18,000 level late on Monday, before falling back slightly to 17,976.31. Still, the Dow gained 263.65 points or 1.49% on a bullish day of trading. The strong rally comes in the face of a rocky month, where the index dropped into negative territory for 2015.
U.S. markets also rose broadly ahead of Friday's highly anticipated U.S. jobs report. Last month, unemployment for February fell to a rate of 5.5% in a better than expected report.
Led by gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Indsutrial sectors, the S&P 500 rose 25.22 points or 1.22% to close at 2,086.24. All 10 sectors on the S&P 500 closed in the green on the opening day of trading this week. The NASDAQ also gained 56.22 or 1.15% to close at 4,947.44.
Healthcare stocks moved broadly higher following the announcement of several mega mergers in the industry. On the Dow, shares in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) gained more than 2.4%, after one of the nation's largest managed health care companies announced a merger with Catamaran Corporation (NASDAQ:CTRX), an Illinois-based pharmacy benefits manager. The deal between the two Midwest companies is valued at $12.8 billion or $61.51 a share.
Shares in Catamaran surged 11.51 or 23.82% to 59.83. Catamaran was also the biggest gainer on Monday on the NASDAQ Composite index.
Elsewhere, Horizon Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:HZNP) soared by more than 17 percent on the session, after the Dublin-based company announced its acquisition of Hyperion Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:HPTX) in a $956 million deal. Hyperion gained 3.24 or 7.58% to close at 45.98. The near-billion deal represents about $46 a share.
The third merger involved the acquisition of Auspex Pharma (NASDAQ:ASPX) by Tel Aviv-based Teva Pharma Industries Ltd (ARCA:TEVA) in a $3.2 billion deal. Following the announcement, Auspex Pharma gained 41.53% or 29.45 to 100.36. The deal is valued at around $101 per share.
The top performer on the Dow was Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which gained 2.69% or 2.81 to close at 107.09. The worst performer was Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which dropped 1.66% or 0.53 to 31.47. Shares in Intel soared on Friday, following speculation that the company could be on the verge of acquiring California-based Altera Corporation (NASDAQ:ALTR), a manufacturer of complex digital circuits. Altera, the worst performer of the day on the NASDAQ and S&P 500, fell 3.54% to 42.82.
The biggest gainer on the S&P 500 was Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ:ADI), which rose 5.97 or 10.15% to 64.81, amid speculation that Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL). will be using the semiconductor's technology to enable the 3D touch feature in its products.