NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Dow Jones industrial average rallied for a second straight session Monday after DuPont and United Technologies eased some of the accounting worries that have hammered stocks this year.
Flat for much of the session, the Nasdaq composite index also ended with a big gain. But stocks, which have advanced only two days this month, may face hurdles Tuesday. That's when federal lawmakers resume hearings on how Enron was able to mislead Wall Street before going bankrupt.
Analysts are also worried about the strength of any recovery in profits, which fell every quarter last year.
The Dow industrials gained 140.54 points, or 1.4 percent, to 9,884.78 Monday, adding to Friday's nearly 119-point gain. The Nasdaq composite index rose 27.78, or 1.5 percent, to 1,846.66, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 15.71, or 1.4 percent, to 1,111.93.
"For the time being you are not having any (accounting) disasters," Nick Angilletta, head of retail sales trading at Salomon Smith Barney, told CNNfn's Halftime Report.
In gainers, chemical maker DuPont said it may raise money by selling a textiles and interiors unit to the public. Aircraft engine maker United Technologies said its 2002 earnings will match its own forecast on the same day that package deliverer FedEx predicted slightly better-than-expected results.
More stocks rose than fell. On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing stocks topped declining ones 2-to-1 as 1.1 billion shares traded. Nasdaq winners edged losers 3-to-2 as 1.5 billion shares changed hands.
In other markets, the dollar fell against the euro and yen. Treasury securities declined.
One of the Dow's biggest gainers, DuPont (DD: up $1.84 to $44.56, Research, Estimates) said it may spin off a $6.5 billion textiles and interiors unit in an initial public offering late next year. DuPont also said it is reorganizing its other businesses into five separate units.
United Technologies (UTX: up $1.02 to $69.10, Research, Estimates), maker of Otis elevators and Pratt & Whitney jet engines, reaffirmed it will earn $4.32 a share this year, 2 cents above the First Call analysts' consensus. The company also said it expects 2002 sales to top the $27.6 billion figure that analysts forecast.
Makers of basic materials, whose fortunes are closely tied to the economy, also rose -- including Alcoa (AA: up $1.31 to $35.73, Research, Estimates) and International Paper (IP: up $1.82 to $43.81, Research, Estimates).
Also advancing, FedEx (FDX: up $1.73 to $55.13, Research, Estimates) said fiscal third-quarter earnings per share could come in above the range analysts have been looking for.
Congressional hearings on the collapse of energy trader Enron resume Tuesday, with former CEO Kenneth Lay expected to exercise his right not to testify. Lawmakers last week tried and failed to learn how the bankrupt company masked its financial problems from so many for so long.
Investors have been quick to punish companies with any real or imagined similarities to Enron. Even with Monday's gains, the Dow industrials are down 1.4 percent on the year while Nasdaq is 5.6 percent lower.
Still, Qualcomm (QCOM: up $3.82 to $41.28, Research, Estimates) rose after the wireless company defended its accounting method after a research firm raised questions about bookkeeping.
Tyco International (TYC: up $1.92 to $31.80, Research, Estimates), a kind of weathervane of accounting jitters, rose for a fourth day, narrowing its annual loss 46 percent. Company executives have vowed to buy Tyco shares and separate the conglomerate's businesses in order to ease worries about its financial health.
Some market watchers do not expect Monday's gains to continue.
"I think the smart money is looking to sell into this rally because it probably can't be sustained," Peter Kenny, head of the NYSE specialist firm that bares his name, told CNNfn's Market Call.
The gold rally that sent the price of the precious metal to two-year highs proved unsustainable Monday. Elsewhere, Prudential Securities recommended that investors sell share of Newmont Mining (NEM: down $1.49 to $23.51, Research, Estimates) , whose share are trading near their 52-week high.
But these have been good times for precious metals. Mutual funds investing in mining companies are up 23.17 percent this year, according to fund-tracker Morningstar, making them 2002's best-performing fund class. That's after an 18.77 percent gain for precious metals funds last year.
4Q reporting season nearly over
The recent torrent of corporate results slows to a trickle in the days ahead, with just 30, or 6 percent, of S&P 500 companies releasing numbers this week.
After falling more than 20 percent in the December quarter, corporate profits are expected to decline again in the current quarter before rising this spring.
But Merrill Lynch said Monday it expects this year's profit recovery to reverse just a fraction of last year's collapse, which helped push stocks lower for a second straight year.
Also in a Monday research note, Anthony Chan, chief economist at Banc One Investment Advisors, said three years may pass before overall profits reach 2000's levels.
"I think we're in the middle of this painful period and we're just going to churn around for a while," Liz Miller, portfolio manager at Trevor Stewart Burton & Jacobsen, told CNNfn's The Money Gang.
The S&P 500 exemplifies this churn. Down 27 percent from 2000's record high, the large company index is up 13 percent from September's low.
But Monday was a decisive session, with only four of the 30 Dow stocks falling. They were: AT&T (T: down $0.22 to $16.13, Research, Estimates) , Procter & Gamble (PG: down $0.38 to $81.71, Research, Estimates) , SBC Communications (SBC: down $0.28 to $35.35, Research, Estimates) and American Express (AXP: down $0.33 to $33.52, Research, Estimates) . 
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