US stock market opens higher

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) - The stock market opened with gains on Monday to begin the first trading day of the week on a higher note.

The Dow added 81 points to 21,430 points and the S&P 500 rose 12 points to 2,435 points.

Nasdaq increased 36 points to begin trading at 6,176 points.

At the first bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 1.1 percent to trade at $46.52 a barrel.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $49.22 per barrel -- a 1 percent increase.