U.S. stocks continued to rally on Monday, bringing the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 to all-time close highs for the third consecutive day, as Citigroup released upbeat earnings [Offshore Company Incorporation] to start a busy week for corporate earnings.

The Dow rose 19.96 points, or 0.13 percent, to 15,484.26 points. The S&P 500 ticked up 2.31 points, or 0.14 percent, to 1,682.50 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 7.41 points, or 0.21 percent, to 3,607.49 points.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched a eight-day winning steak.

Citigroup reported on Monday net income of 4.2 billion U.S. dollars, or 1.34 dollars per diluted share, on revenues of 20.5 billion dollars in the second quarter of 2013. The major U.S. bank reported a net income of 2.9 billion dollars, or 0.95 dollar per diluted share, on revenues of 18.4 billion dollars a year ago. The latest results topped analysts' estimate of 1.18 dollars a share on revenue of 19.73 billion dollars.

Shares of Citigroup were up 1.99 percent to 51.82 dollars per share.

Last Friday, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. also reported strong earnings, both beating market consensus.

Earnings from all the six major U.S. banks will come out this week, which are expected to set the tone of the earnings season. Also reporting earnings this week are tech giants, including Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, IBM and Intel.

Last week, the Dow and the S&P 500 refreshed their record closing highs registered in late May, boosted by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's dovish speech.

Investors are also keeping a close eye on Bernanke's testimony to the U.S. Congress scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

The U.S. economic data released on Monday were lackluster, providing little momentum for the equity market.

The advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for June increased 0.4 percent to 442.8 billion dollars from the previous month, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Monday. The latest figures missed analysts' estimates of rising 0.8 percent.

"Retail sales cooled in June, though not enough to prevent the year-on-year growth rate in sales from rising to 5.7 percent for the first time since last September. Car sales were up 1.8 percent, the most since last November. Ex-cars and gasoline, however, sales fell for the first time since last June and, as a result, headline sales rose half as much as expected," Mei Li, an economic analyst at FTN Financial, commented in a note on Monday.[HongKong Richful  - Hong Kong Company Formation, Offshore Company Incorporation]

Moreover, manufacturing activity in the New York region continued to improve modestly in July, according to a survey released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The general business conditions index rose to 9.5, beating market expectations.

Besides, business inventories inched up 0.1 [HK Corporate Registration]percent in May from April, while sales rose 1.1 percent, the U.S. Commerce Department said Monday.