U.S. stocks open higher amid upbeat data

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday as data showed the country's consumer income and outlays increased last month.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday that personal income increased 58.6 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.4 percent, in February from the previous month. Meanwhile, consumer spending, which takes up more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy, rose 11.8 billion dollar, or 0.1 percent.

In corporate news, UnitedHealth Group Inc. agreed to buy Catamaran Corp. for about 12.8 billion dollars. According to a statement released by the two companies, UnitedHealth will pay 61.50 dollars a share, which is 27 percent higher than Catamaran's closing share price of 48.32 dollars last Friday.

In the previous session, U.S. stocks posted modest gains, with all the three major indices snapping their four-day losing streaks, as investors were digesting the final revision to the fourth quarter real gross domestic product.

The U.S. economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, unchanged from the second estimate released last month, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Friday.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 138.27 points, or 0.78 percent, to 17,850.93. The S&P 500 gained 15.18 points, or 0.74 percent, to 2,076.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 38.61 points, or 0.79 percent, to 4,929.83. Endi