Wall Street opens higher as overseas markets jump

Stocks opened higher Monday as Wall Street looked to rising stocks overseas and a falling yen as it tried to bounce back from a losing week.

The advance came ahead of a report on home sales as well as a reading on manufacturing in the Midwest. The economic data arrive before the start Tuesday of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting on interest rates.

While few expect the Fed will adjust short-term interest rates, investors will be looking for any change in the central bank's posture that could hint at where rates are headed in the coming months, reports AP.

In the first minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose about 72 points to the 12,182 level.