Despite rioting on the streets of Athens, Greece's parliament went forward with an austerity deal that should open the door to its receiving further assistance from the rest of Europe. The stock market reacted favorably to that news and its positive impact on the global banking industry. At around 10:45 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrials (INDEX: ^DJI) were up 35 points to 12,836, while the S&P 500 was up four points to 1,347.

Among stocks in the Dow, General Electric (NYSE: GE) was up about 0.6% in early trading. The company said that it would spend $580 million to expand its aviation unit, building three new plants and hoping to add 400 workers. GE also announced a partnership with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) to create a joint venture called Caradigm. The venture will aim at providing information technology to the health-care industry, allowing real-time sharing of information to improve treatment. Microsoft fell slightly on the news.

Energy stocks were slightly higher Monday, with ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Chevron both rising about 0.4%. Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) announced plans to raise between $10 billion and $12 billion in cash by entering into partnerships and selling some of its assets. The money should go toward capital expenditures, with an emphasis on increasing its production of liquids now that natural gas is near decade lows. Although Exxon and Chevron are larger and have fewer liquidity issues than Chesapeake does, the moves that Chesapeake is making have implications for their own natural gas businesses in the future.

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