Stocks in the US are off to a positive start on the week, thanks in part to an unexpected spike in new-home sales and the to-be-expected wave of optimism that results from companies reporting strong earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose better than 100 points on Monday to return to positive territory for 2010.

As the Wall Street Journal reported, however, trading was "unusually thin, with 2.7 billion shares trading hands with one hour to go in New York Stock Exchange composite trading."

Meanwhile, new-home sales jumped 23.6% in June over the prior month. Only a 3.7% gain had been anticipated by forecasters.

As the WSJ also noted, "two weeks into earnings season, results have been mostly better than expected. With nearly half of the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index having reported earnings by Friday's close, almost 71% beat operating estimates from S&P and just over 73% beat analysts' sales estimates."

"We'd like to see better assuredness as to whether or not these better earnings can continue to lift the market, that we haven't completed exhausted what we've got so far," said Robert Pavlik of Banyan Partners.

"The inventory number was very good," added Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at Hugh Johnson Advisors, "suggesting there is not a big overhang--and that's good news."