Figures on closely watched producer and consumer prices, industrial production and retail sales for February will anchor the pile of economic data on its way. Market experts and economists largely expect incremental shifts in key data, which would show that the economy is on track to grow at a sustainable rate and keep the Federal Reserve from finding reasons to raise rates.

"There's going to be recovery ...we had a little bit of a washout in speculation. The big macroeconomic numbers are benign, and I think we'll have strength in the market [in the] short term," said Thomas Winmill, portfolio manager at the Midas Fund.

Leading into the next week's round of data was Friday's in-line jobs report for February. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 97,000; expectations were for an increase of 100,000 jobs. The unemployment rate moved down to 4.5% from 4.6%.

Investors looking for bright spots in the market will look to Texas Instruments, which will issue its midquarter update Monday evening.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 91 points at 12,283, with 28 of the average's 30 components posting gains, including General Motors Corp. up 1.7% at $31.29 and Citigroup up 1.6% at $51.03.

The S&P 500 rose 14 points to 1,406 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 25 points at 2,399.

There were 385 million shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, where there were more than 4 advancing shares for every one on the decline. More than 472 million shares traded in the Nasdaq market, where there were more than 3 gaining stocks for every loser.