Stocks rise on hopes for China stimulus U.S. stocks are rising on optimism that China will take steps to boost its economy which has been growing at a slower pace. Dow is up 88 points to 12,542 in early trading. The broader S&P 500 index is up 9 points to 1,327. Nasdaq is up 20 points to 2,858. The movements following a three-day weekend come ahead of the release of the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for May. Economists expect the confidence figure to edge up to 70, an improvement over April's 69.2 but still far from the 90 that indicates a healthy economy. Another report showed that home prices rose in March for most of the 20 markets tracked by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index. The gains came as fears eased about problems with Spanish banks. Spain's banks are sitting on massive amounts of soured investments in the country's imploded real estate market. That has led to the recent nationalization of Bankia, the country's fourth-largest lender, which revealed last week it needed more money than expected - (euro) 19 billion ($23.8 billion) - in state aid to shore itself up. Investors fear that the Spanish government, which is already under pressure to lower its debts at a time of recession and record-high unemployment, will be overwhelmed by the cost of saving the country's banking sector.