U.S. stocks closed higher Monday ahead of a big corporate earnings season. The dollar gained ground against the euro, the pound, and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for August delivery dropped 8 cents to $103.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures rose $22.20 to $1,234.90 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 88.85, or 0.59 percent, to 15,224.69. The broader Standard & Poor\'s 500 index climbed 8.57, or 0.53 percent, to 1,640.46. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 5.45, or 0.16 percent, to 3,484.83.