NEW YORK (CNNfn) - A powerful injection of surprisingly solid earnings news kept U.S. stocks going Wednesday, pushing the market higher yet, even after almost a week of steady advances.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed 13.38 points higher at 8,519.23. On the New York Stock Exchange, declines trailed advances 1,498 to 1,560 on trading volume of 746 million shares.
The Nasdaq Composite, powered by a strong profit showing by Microsoft, rallied 35.56, or 2.2 percent, to 1,674.75 and the S&P 500 index gained 5.99 to 1,069.92.
Despite the market's rather tempered advance, investors seemed upbeat about stocks, drawing optimism from the latest corporate-earnings score card. According to First Call, a company that tracks earnings, only 10 percent of S&P 500 companies to report third-quarter results so far delivered negative surprises and 8 percent produced negative reports. At the same time, 24 percent surprised investors positively, 30 percent delivered positive reports and 28 percent of earnings were on target. Slightly fewer than half of the S&P 500 companies have shared their latest earnings with the public so far.
The market's ability to hold on to slim gains rather than sell off in the wake of a strong rally, was viewed as another positive for stocks. But Scott Wittman, chief investment officer at Vantage Global Advisors, said it was too early to deduce that the bull market is back. Instead, Wittman predicted a period of range-bound trading and heavy market volatility for stocks. (597K WAV) or (597K AIFF)
The bond market finished mostly lower. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond eased 2/32 of a point in price, for a yield of 5.07 percent.
The dollar posted moderate advances against the German mark and the Japanese yen.
A temporary suspension of trading in financial futures on the Chicago Board of Trade, caused by a technical glitch, appeared to cause little reaction in financial markets in New York.
Tech stocks in the spotlight
In stocks, investors focused on technology issues after late Tuesday two of the sector's leaders, IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT), reported better-than-expected earnings.
Shares of Microsoft rallied 6-3/16, or more than 6 percent, to 106-7/16 after the software maker said it earned 56 cents a share, before special gains, in its fiscal first quarter, well above the 49 cents Wall Street had expected. The news helped lift the stock after two days of hefty declines stemming from a broad antitrust lawsuit against the company, brought on by the Justice Department and 20 states.
Shares of IBM, a Dow component, advanced 4-13/16 to 142-11/16. Big Blue earned $1.56 a share in the third quarter, beating market expectations by 3 cents.
And the battered shares of Computer Associates(CA) gained 2-3/8 to 38-7/8 after the company reported earnings that beat estimates by 4 cents a share.
Other technology issues fed on the positive news, with Dell Computer (DELL) rising 3-5/8 to 56-15/16, Intel (INTC) climbing 2-1/2 to 87-1/16 and Cisco Systems (CSCO) up 3-1/2 to 57-5/8.
But the stock of PeopleSoft (PSFT) softened 6, or more than 23 percent, to 19-3/4 after the maker of human-resources software reported quarterly results that disappointed investors. PeopleSoft was the second-most active stock and one of the leading net losers on the Nasdaq.
Among other Dow components reporting earnings, shares of chemical giant DuPont (DD) tumbled 2-3/16 to 62 after the company beat operating earnings estimates by a penny but also warned that global rumblings will continued to put its business under pressure.
Finally, in the market's deal du jour, shares of plastic-goods maker Rubbermaid (RBD) surged 6-1/8, or almost 24 percent, to 32 on news the company is being bought by home-furnishings and housewares maker Newell (NWL) for $5.8 billion in stock. Newell's shares fell 5-13/16, or nearly 12 percent, to 43-1/4. Everen Securities downgraded Newell to "intermediate-term market performer" but kept the stock's rating as "long-term outperformer."
(Click here for a look at today's CNNfn market movers.) 
-- by staff writer Malina Poshtova Zang
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