Whether the recent relative calm of the markets holds will probably depend in part on economic data due next week, including minutes from a Fed meeting and an early read on the gross domestic product for the second quarter.
Finance ministry data released Monday also showed a healthy increase in corporate investment, pointing to a sharp upward revision to second-quarter G.D.P. data due next week from the preliminary figure, which showed a 2.6 percent rate of expansion.
Although the gains of the last three weeks have been based on early signs of improvement in the banking system and the economy, the advances are vulnerable to economic data due next week and first-quarter earnings reports due in a few weeks.
Among other data due this week are the Institute for Supply Management's indexes for the manufacturing and services sectors of the economy.
"It's very important because it shows you if this trend continues," Larry Rice, chief investment officer at Josephthal Lyon & Ross, said of the data due today.
Andrew Sentance, senior economics adviser at PwC, said the update would be the most closely scrutinised of all the data due this week after activity and orders in July were found to have contracted at the fastest rate since early 2009.
And there is important economic data due today, including a report on consumer confidence, that could, if disappointing, push the Dow back below 10,000 for the 19th time since the level was first breached on May 29 , 1999
Mr. Kowalczyk of Crédit Agricole said the central bank might cut the rate, possibly before the release of first-quarter economic growth data, due April 13.
Investors also stayed on the sidelines before the release of data due later this week from the United States, another of Japan's big trading partners.
Paul Dales, the United States economist for Capital Economics, said his firm was revising second-quarter growth downward, to 3.5 to 4 percent, from a previous estimate of 4.5 percent, but would also take into account retail sales data due later this week.
Retail stocks had a strong morning, ahead of sales data due next week.
