Stocks are rallying today, one day after taking their biggest hit in recent months. Greece continues to be in focus, but better than expected economic data helped lift stocks today. According to the ADP National Employment Report, private employers created 216,000 jobs last month. This beat expectations of 208,000. Investors are also looking ahead to Friday’s monthly government jobs report. Many economists are expecting a gain of 210,000 in nonfarm payrolls and 225,000 jobs in the private sector.

Greece will stay in the spotlight for many investors at least until the Thursday night deadline for the country’s creditors to take the credit swap deal passes. Financials are helping lift the stock market today with Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) up more than 2% and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) up more than 3%. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is also seeing a 1% jump today as investors and consumers eagerly await the unveiling of the iPad 3 later today.

At noon the Dow is up 74 points, the Nasdaq is up 27 points and the S&P 500 is up 8 points. [Read more...]