(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index toward a record closing level, as oil rallied for a second day and data showed Europe’s economy expanded more than forecast. The S&P 500 advanced 0.2 percent to 2,092.20 at 9:51 a.m. in New York, above a closing record of 2,090.57 reached Dec. 29. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.2 percent, at its highest level in almost 15 years. The Russell 2000 Index climbed 0.3 percent, also poised for a record close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 34.96 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,007.34. “Investors are becoming much more confident because the negative concerns don’t seem to be having an impact in the market,� Matt Maley, a equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. LLC in Newton, Massachusetts, said by telephone. “People are realizing that the situation in Greece is not systemically problematic. Oil’s been beaten up, that’s turning around.� U.S. equities are approaching record levels for the first time in 2015, bolstered by the biggest three-month rise in hiring in 17 years and signs of easing tension between Greece and its euro-area creditors. The benchmark gauge has more than tripled from its bear-market low in March 2009, propelled higher by better-than-forecast corporate earnings and three rounds of Federal Reserve bond purchases. The Fed renewed its pledge in January to maintain record-low borrowing costs even as the economy shows signs of acceleration. Repeated Interruptions The S&P 500 has gone more than three years without a retreat of 10 percent or more. But unlike last year, when the gauge never had a streak of losses that exceeded three days, the route higher in 2015 has seen repeated interruptions. The S&P 500 has rallied 4.7 percent in February after sinking 3.1 percent in January for its worst month in a year. Since the start of 2015, the index has experienced three declines of more than 2.7 percent, only to recover within a week each time, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The strongest dollar in a decade and a plunge in oil prices that threaten investment and earnings growth have tested the resilience of investors as the bull market nears its seventh year. Concern that European growth is slipping amid signs of deflation, coupled with a showdown that led to speculation Greece would exit from the region’s shared currency also weighed on investor sentiment. Hedging Moves Beneath the surface of the biggest equity rally since the dot-com bubble, institutions are taking steps to shield themselves should the momentum burn out. Options traders have snapped up so many puts, which pay off when the S&P 500 falls, that their cost relative to bullish contracts has jumped to the highest level since at least 2006. Equities gained Friday as data showed the euro-area economy picked up momentum at the end of last year, with Germany reasserting itself as the driver of growth, offsetting weakness in Greece and Italy. Government officials taking part in Greece’s debt negotiations said both sides are signaling willingness to compromise, while the German economy, Europe’s largest, expanded 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter, more than twice as much as forecast. Economic Data “Both issues have played out better than expected and markets have thus started to regain confidence over the past few days,� said Otto Waser, chief investment officer at R&A Research & Asset Management AG in Zurich. In the U.S., the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment index will probably show confidence remained at an 11-year high in February, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Earnings for S&P 500 companies rose 4.1 percent last quarter, while sales gained 1.4 percent, according to analysts’ forecasts compiled by Bloomberg. About two-thirds of the S&P 500 companies have reported so far, with 76 percent beating profit estimates and 56 percent topping sales projections, data compiled by Bloomberg show. To contact the reporters on this story: Roxana Zega in Zurich at rzega@bloomberg.net; Michelle F. Davis in New York at mdavis194@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecile Vannucci at cvannucci1@bloomberg.net; Jeff Sutherland at jsutherlan13@bloomberg.net Jeff Sutherland, Namitha Jagadeesh

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