1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks rebound strongly on Berkshire deal

U.S. stocks surged Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average snapping a seven-session losing streak, as a Berkshire deal cheered Wall Street sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average spiked 241.79 points, or 1.39 percent, to 17,615.17. The S&P 500 jumped 26.61 points, or 1.28 percent, to 2,104.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index went up 58.25 points, or 1.16 percent, to 5,101.80.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway on Monday agreed to buy Precision Castparts for about 37.2 billion U.S. dollars, which would be the conglomerate's largest takeover ever.

Some analysts believed that such a deal showed the M&A boom was alive and well, which spurred market bulls.

Shares of Precision Castparts soared 19.10 percent to 230.92 U. S. dollars apiece on Monday.

The recovery in oil prices also provided some upward jolts to the stock market. Oil prices gained Monday as data showed China imported more crude in July, with Brent crude rising over 3 percent.

In response, the energy sector surged 3.11 percent on Monday, leading the advancers among the S&P 500's ten sectors.

Overseas, Chinese shares soared on Monday due to strong market expectations on the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index surging 4.92 percent.

European equities also ended higher on Monday as investors were encouraged by the progress in Greece's third bailout deal, with French benchmark index CAC 40 up 0.79 percent. Endite