Stocks up on rate cut bets

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks rallied Monday afternoon, led by the financial and housing sectors, as investors welcomed a stronger-than-expected pending home sales report and geared up for Tuesday's expected interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts) added 0.6 percent with around 2 hours left in the session. The broader S&P 500 (Charts) index added 0.5 percent and the tech-fueled Nasdaq (Charts) composite added 0.3 percent.

The Fed's policy committee, meeting Tuesday, is widely expected to cut the fed funds rate, a key short-term lending rate, by a quarter-percentage point, to 4.25 percent, after cutting rates at the last two meetings.

Some Wall Streeters are looking for a cut of a half-percentage point, but such bets were diminished by last week's mostly upbeat November jobs report.

"I think people are pretty positive that we'll get a quarter-percentage point cut and also hoping that maybe we'll get a half-percentage point cut," said Curtis Teberg, portfolio manager of the Teberg Fund (Charts).

The central bank has been cutting the fed funds rate, which impacts consumer borrowing costs, since September, as a means of loosening up the credit market and trying to keep the economy out of falling into a recession.

Investors will also be looking to the statement Tuesday that accompanies the decision to shed further light on the Fed's outlook for the economy and the risks to that outlook.

Ahead of that, investors took in the morning's pending home sales index, which showed a rise of 0.6 percent, versus forecasts that sales would fall 1 percent.

In corporate news, UBS (Charts) issued a profit warning, said it will write down about $10 billion related to the credit market crisis and will borrow about $11.5 billion from outside investors.

Troubled bond insurer MBIA (Charts) said Monday that it will receive a $1 billion investment from private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Shares jumped around 20 percent.

McDonald's (Charts, Fortune 500), a Dow component, reported November sales at its stores open a year or more rose 8.2 percent, well above estimates.

MGI Pharma (Charts) rallied 16 percent after the drug company agreed to be bought by Japanese drug company Eisai for $3.9 billion in cash.

McDonald's was one of many Dow components rising, with 21 of the 30 blue-chip components higher. Other gainers included Alcoa (Charts, Fortune 500), Boeing (Charts, Fortune 500), General Motors (Charts, Fortune 500), Citigroup (Charts, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (Charts, Fortune 500) and JP Morgan (Charts, Fortune 500).

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners topped losers 7 to 3 on volume of 350 million shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners eight to five on volume of 620 million shares.

Treasury prices slipped, boosting the yield on the 10-year note to 4.15 percent from 4.10 percent late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and was little changed against the yen.

U.S. light crude oil for January delivery fell 73 cents to $87.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for February delivery rallied $12.80 to $813 an ounce.