Wall Street gains on sentiment rise

United States stocks have continued their upward trajectory, closing higher following a strong US jobs report and improving sentiment over Europe's prospects.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 88.85 points, or 0.59%, to close up 15,224.69 points.

The broad-based S&P 500 closed up 8.57 points, or 0.53%, to 1,640.46 points.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 5.45 points, or 0.16%, to 3,484.83 points.

Monday's gains came on the heels of Friday's surge in US equity markets after the Labor Department reported that the US added 195,000 jobs in June, well above the 166,000 forecast.

Wall Street was also cheered by Monday's gains in European markets such as France's CAC 40 (up. 1.9%), Germany's DAX (up 2.3%) and Britain's FTSE 100 (up 0.5%).

Greece's bailout lenders the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund announced on Monday that an audit showed that Greece's reform efforts were "broadly in line" with expectations.

European investors were also relieved that some high-level resignations in Portugal appear to have passed without bringing down the governing coalition.

Investors positioned themselves ahead of the kick-off to the US second-quarter earnings reporting season that gets underway when Alcoa becomes the first Dow company to release its results after the session's closing bell.