U.S. stocks opened broadly higher Monday, as investors awaited Wednesday`s Fed policy meeting, with increasing confidence that the Fed won`t start tapering in super-easy stimulus.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.13% to 15240.87. The S&P 500 index climbed 0.86% to 1640.80. The NASDAQ composite index rose 1.01% to 1458.27 points. As of 09:55 a.m. ET

Equities got an extra boost from a better-than-expected reading on manufacturing activity in the New York area. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York`s June Empire State index came in at 7.84, above an expected reading of zero.

The Fed will hold its two-day policy meeting beginning tomorrow, with Bernanke scheduled to speak after the central bank’s decision on July 19. Investors have been scrutinizing economic data to determine whether growth is strong enough to prompt the bank to scale back stimulus measures.

Investors will be looking for more clarity on the Fed`s intentions.

Economists` expectations see that Ben Bernanke will calm fears of over-zealous tapering after the end of the meeting on Wednesday.

Manufacturing activity in the New York region rebounded in June, highly above analysts` estimates, however remained weak in details, as new orders and shipments decreased.

The Empire State manufacturing index improved in June to 7.84 from negative 1.43 in May, New York Federal Reserve said. Analysts had expected a stagnant reading.

The key new orders sub-index fell to negative 6.7 from negative 1.2 and shipment slipped to negative 11.8 in June from flat in May. Labor market conditions also worsened in the month.

The prices paid index held steady at 21.0, while the prices received index rose seven points to 11.3.

Continuing the trend seen in the past few months, indexes for the six-month outlook declined, suggesting that optimism about future conditions was weakening further.

The Empire State index is of interest to investors primarily because it is seen as an early forecast of the national Institute for Supply management factory survey.

Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar held on to modest gains against the euro, with EUR/USD dipping 0.06% to trade at 1.3335.

The dollar rose against major counterparts Monday ahead of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee`s two-day policy meeting tomorrow, while traders are expecting to get fresh clues about the Fed`s next move.

The USDIX, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a six-currency basket, rose 0.16% to 80.71 as of 11:05 GMT.  The euro was down 0.19% at $1.3329, while the pound was 0.13% lower at $1.5711. The dollar was 0.25% higher at 94.58 yen.

Bets are mounting that the Fed Chief Ben S. Bernanke will not take a step back on stimulus measures this week, where he and his colleagues are expected to leave the benchmark interest rate its all-time low.

However, jitters have been roiling the market in the past two months with growing belief the Fed might start scaling back on its fourth program of sovereign bond-buying of $85 billion-a-month later this year.

Bernanke will follow up the Fed`s two-day meeting Wednesday with a press briefing and economic projections, taking center stage in global markets this week, which are craving for fresh clues about QE outlook.

In March this year, Fed latest projections saw real GDP growth at around 2.6% in 2013 and 3.2% in 2014. Of unemployment, the Fed projected a rate of around 7.4% in 2013, improving to around 6.9% in 2014.