Wall Street Gains for 3rd Straight Month

Wall Street finished up on the last trading day of February amid positive economic data and comments.

It was the third straight month for the U.S. stocks to close higher. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 95.89 points, or 0. 79 percent, to 12,226.34, ending the month with a 2.81-percent gain.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 1.22 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,782.27. The Nasdaq gained 7.34 points, or 0.56 percent, to 1,327.22.

For the Dow and the S&P 500, this month also represented their biggest February gains since 1998.

The increase came after the market's worst time since November last week. Libya crisis, which drove oil prices surge, made investors concern that it would threaten the global economic recovery.

The economic data on Monday, however, making investors relieve to some extent. The Commerce Department posted on Monday that personal income of American workers jumped a seasonally adjusted one percent in the first month of 2011, marking the biggest rise in a year and a half, while consumer spending rose 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, a measure of Chicago-area manufacturing came in at a faster-than-expected pace in February. The Chicago business barometer rose to 71.2 from 68.8 in January, led by a rise in production.

Housing market also showed some positive signals. According to the National Association of Realtors, its index of sales agreements for previously occupied homes fell 2.8 percent last month to a reading of 88.9, the second straight monthly decline.

Also boosting sentiment, Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., spoke in his widely read annual letter to shareholders of the need for "major acquisitions." Investors believed the comment was a sign that stocks might be still cheap.

Moreover, according to the St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, the increasing oil prices were not a big enough shock to damage the recovery. He said that the U.S. economy was in very good shape for 2011.