NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks ended mostly higher Monday ahead of a flurry of earnings reports that could determine whether the economy is really getting better, as investors have been hoping over the past month as they plunged money back into the market.

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Early signs were promising. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. surprised investors after the end of trading Monday when it released better-than-expected quarterly results and announced a $5 billion stock offering. The company had been scheduled to report results early Tuesday.

The bank's $1.7 billion profit was just the sort of good surprise traders were eager for Monday as they snapped up financial stocks. Some are looking for signs of recovery, while others don't want to get burned if banks beat the low expectations the market has set for the industry.

The buying helped the Dow Jones industrial average turn a 120-point deficit into a modest loss of 26 points by the time the closing bell sounded. Broader indexes managed to post gains. Trading volume was light, which can skew the market's moves.

The occasional bouts of selling after a long holiday weekend were orderly and suggested that traders were reluctant to give up on a five-week rally. The earnings reports and economic figures due this week could reignite buying if they beat Wall Street's modest expectations.

"If you get a couple earnings reports that are better than the worst that people expected then that might help," said Denis Amato, chief investment officer at Ancora Advisors.