U.S. stocks advanced, a day after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallied to a seven-month high, as Greek political leaders struck a deal on a package of austerity measures needed to secure international rescue funds.

Visa Inc. (V), the biggest payments network, rose 5 percent as profit topped projections. Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM), the operator of a server network that lets businesses speed data delivery, surged 10 percent as sales beat estimates. Groupon Inc., the daily-deal site that went public in November, tumbled 13 percent after reporting an unexpected tax-related loss.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to 1,353.60 as of 2:18 p.m. New York time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 25.81 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,909.76.

“I’d expect a better performance for stocks,” Peter Jankovskis, who helps manage about $2.6 billion at Oakbrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois, said in a telephone interview. “The market is acting skittish. Maybe people want to see the final document. If the EU can show that they can deal with a small country with a big problem, then investors may be reassured that some of the larger countries with smaller problems can also be handled.”

Equities rallied around the world after Greece’s government reached a deal on austerity measures required for a 130 billion- euro ($173 billion) financing package, according to an e-mailed statement from the Greek Prime Minister’s press office. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi signaled the economic outlook has improved.

Bull Market

The MSCI All-Country World Index of shares in 45 nations completed a 20 percent rally from its October low yesterday, meeting the definition of a bull market. The S&P 500 yesterday closed 1 percent away from its peak nine months ago of 1,363.61, which was the highest level since June 2008. It had risen 7.3 percent this year through yesterday amid better-than-expected economic data and corporate profits.

Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said low interest rates and inflation should dissuade investors from buying bonds and other holdings tied to currencies.

“They are among the most dangerous of assets,” Buffett said in an adaptation of his annual letter to shareholders that appeared today on Fortune magazine’s website. “Over the past century these instruments have destroyed the purchasing power of investors in many countries, even as these holders continued to receive timely payments of interest and principal.”

Stock Picks

Buffett, 81, who built Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire from a failing textile maker into a firm selling insurance, energy and jewelry through acquisitions and stock picks, echoes Laurence D. Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc. Fink said this week that investors should be 100 percent in equities, because of depressed stock valuations and the Federal Reserve’s pledge to keep interest rates low.

Visa rallied 5 percent to $113.72. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Joseph W. Saunders is positioning Visa for its next phase of growth after U.S. regulators capped so-called swipe fees, or interchange, that the company charges merchants for debit-card purchases. Visa, which derived about 56 percent of revenue from the U.S. in fiscal 2011, has said it intends to generate more than half from markets abroad by 2015.

Akamai jumped 10 percent to $37.89. The company, whose customers include Apple Inc. (AAPL), is benefiting from rising demand for its services as companies seek ways to push data-heavy digital content, such as videos, around the world more quickly. A surge in Web shopping bolstered Akamai’s results during the holiday season, said Mark Kelleher, an analyst at Dougherty & Co. in Boston.

Groupon Tumbles

Groupon tumbled 13 percent to $21.41. The company has expanded to 47 countries and set up a new international headquarters in Switzerland. That contributed to a higher-than- expected $34.8 million in taxes, Chief Financial Officer Jason Child said.

PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) fell 3.8 percent to $64.24. The company plans to cut 8,700 jobs and boost marketing spending for its brands by as much as $600 million as Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi works to turn around the world’s largest snack-food maker.

As global stocks return to a bull market, the losers in the U.S. are companies least tied to economic growth.

For the first time since 1999, S&P 500 utilities, phone companies and providers of consumer staples posted the only monthly losses, slumping at least 1.5 percent with dividends in January, and continued to lag behind this month. It’s a reversal from 2011, when the three defensive industries returned more than 6.3 percent as investors embraced stocks thought to do well during a slowdown.

Riskier Assets

Investors are shifting toward riskier assets as U.S. manufacturing expanded the most since June and the jobless rate fell to a three-year low of 8.3 percent. In 2011, the global equity measure suffered its biggest losses since the subprime- mortgage crisis.

“Last year, investors tended to hide in things which are stable, paying reasonable dividends,” said Sudhir Nanda, a money manager and head of the quantitative equity group at T. Rowe Price Group Inc. in Baltimore, which oversees $489.5 billion. “This year, people looked at the U.S. and said, ‘Things are not really that bad.’ If the economy is humming, people tend to buy more of the sectors which will profit from growth, industrials, materials and things like that.”