The stock market rose in a big way today, and given recent conditions, that could be a decent story in and of itself.  But there’s a sort of added dimension this time around, since third quarter earnings reports should start trickling in and the increase appears to represent optimism on that front.

Let’s cover the numbers first.  The Dow rose 112.08 points (or 1.18 percent) to wind up at 9,599.75.  The Nasdaq rose 20.04 points (or 0.98 percent), and ended the trading day at 2,068.15.  As for the S&P 500, it rose 15.25 points (or an impressive 1.49 percent), and found itself at 1,040.46 when all was said and done.

Not bad, right?

Geoffrey Rogow and Peter A. McKay also reported, “[F]ears were alleviated on a better-than-expected report on the service sector and as banks leapt higher on an upgrade of the sector by analysts at Goldman Sachs.”

And, “In particular, traders noted that last week’s decline sets up a similar situation to the period just before the last earnings season, partly suggesting a rally may be in store once corporate reports start trickling in.”

So keep your fingers crossed as we move forward, and hopefully we’ll see stocks continue to gain once the earnings reports actually come out.