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U.S. stocks rose, putting the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index on pace for its longest monthly rally in a year, as the world’s largest economy expanded more than forecast and concern about Europe’s debt crisis eased.

The S&P 500 added 0.1 percent to 1,374.07 at 9:31 a.m. New York time. The benchmark gauge has climbed 4.7 percent in February and is poised for a third straight month of gains.

“The economy is gradually putting one foot in front of the other,” Lawrence Creatura, who helps oversee $369.7 billion as a Rochester, New York-based fund manager at Federated Investors Inc., said in a telephone interview. “However, some investors perceive it as tenuous. There’s progress in moving the ball down the field in Europe. There’s likely room for more gains in the market. The one question that’s coming up is the impact of higher oil prices.”

Stocks rose as gross domestic product climbed at a revised 3 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the most since the second quarter of 2010. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for no change from the previously reported 2.8 percent gain. Global stocks rallied as euro-area banks tapped the European Central Bank for a record amount of three-year cash in an operation that may boost bond and equity markets.

Yesterday’s rally took the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) above 13,000 for the first time since 2008. The 30-stock measure is on pace for a fifth straight month of gains, the longest advance since April, amid better-than-estimated economic data and expectations Europe would tame its debt crisis.