Wall Street's terrific Tuesday

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks surged Tuesday in a broad based rally as investors welcomed falling oil prices and encouraging signs from the troubled housing market.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 128.32 to 12,510.62, Charts) and the broader S&P 500 (up 13.22 to 1,437.77, Charts) index both rose around 1 percent, according to early tallies. The Nasdaq (Charts) composite added 1.2 percent.

Treasury prices fell, raising the corresponding yields. The dollar gained versus other major currencies.

Oil and gold prices fell.

Here's a look at what was moving near the close.

A combination of a strong February pending home sales report, a number of company deals and a slump in energy prices fired up the rally Tuesday.

"Energy prices are back down, expecting that 15 soldiers will be back in the U.K. soon. And pending home sales came out better than expected," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "One of investors' biggest concerns is that the real estate market could drive economy into recession, and I think market is celebrating the positive sign in real estate."

"We're very much a momentum-driven market today. Now the markets are reacting to news stories and geopolitical events, and we will continue to until we started getting some first quarter earnings news from corporate America in two weeks."

Gains were broad-based Tuesday, with 28 of 30 Dow components rising. Standouts included Alcoa (up $0.70 to $34.62, Charts), Walt Disney (up $0.45 to $34.92, Charts), Home Depot (up $0.84 to $37.63, Charts) and Altria (up $1.43 to $69.65, Charts). Additionally, component United Technologies (up $0.60 to $65.32, Charts) rose after it was added to Credit Suisse First Boston's Focus list, Briefing.com reported.

The major gauges hit morning highs after the 10 a.m. ET release of the U.S. pending home sales index. The index rose 0.7 percent in February versus forecasts for a decline in the month.

U.S. light crude oil for May delivery slumped $1.44 to $64.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on hopes for some resolution of the conflict from Iran holding 15 British naval personnel. Iran is the No. 4 oil exporter.

Also helping stocks: Asian and European markets ended higher.

In other news, Comcast (up $0.50 to $26.24, Charts) said it's buying privately held cable company Patriot Media & Communications for about $483 million in cash.

Chrysler (down $1.07 to $82.95, Charts) reported that its March auto sales declined 4.6 percent to 206,435. Ford (down $0.01 to $8.08, Charts) reported a 9 percent decline in sales to 264,975 vehicles. Both sales figures were a little stronger than the more severe drops analysts expected.

Dean Foods (up $1.37 to $33.70, Charts) said it's returning $1.94 billion to shareholders through a special $15 dividend, sending shares 5 percent higher.

Marshall & Ilsley (up $3.97 to $49.83, Charts) rallied 11 percent in active New York Stock Exchange trade on reports that it is set to spin off its payment processing unit Metavante Corp. Additionally, private equity firm Warburg Pincus is expected to buy a stake in the spin off valued at about $4 billion.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners topped losers by more than 3 to 1 on volume of 927 million shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners 2 to 1 on volume of 1.6 billion shares.

Treasury prices slipped, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 4.66 percent from 4.64 percent late Monday. Bond prices seesawed throughout the morning.

In currency trading, the dollar rose versus the euro and the yen.

COMEX gold for June delivery rose 30 cents to $671.80 an ounce.

Why Iran matters to oil markets

Earnings set to slow

More on the markets

More on investing