NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A powerful U.S. stock market rally ended with a whimper Tuesday after more signs of economic strength could not soothe investors hungry for rising corporate profits.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index posted its second-biggest advance on record this month as Americans' outlook on the job market brightened. But earnings, which are set for their fifth straight quarterly decline, have yet to follow; at least five companies cut financial guidance Monday.

The Dow Jones industrial average gave back most of a 151-point surge to end at 10,353.36, for a gain of 71.69 points, or 0.7 percent, snapping a four-session losing streak. Higher by as much as 31 points, the Nasdaq composite index closed up 11.68, or 0.6 percent, to 1,824.17. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.62, or 0.6 percent, to 1,138.49 after being up as much as 16 points.

The late pullback came during a session with plenty of disappointments. Ciena, a maker of optical networking equipment, announced massive job cuts. Network Associates raised new worries about the accuracy of corporate accounting.

And despite the highest level of consumer confidence since August, Kari Bayer, a senior U.S. strategist at Merrill Lynch, does not expect the stock market to see big gains without evidence of improving earnings.

"Without the good fundamental news, it's going to be difficult to call the rally a sustainable rally," Bayer told CNNfn's Halftime Report.

More stocks rose than fell. On the New York Stock Exchange, advancers beat decliners 3-to-2 as 1.1 billion shares traded. Nasdaq winners topped losers 5-to-4 as 1.5 billion shares changed hands.

In other markets, the dollar slipped against the yen and was flat versus the euro. Treasury securities, which have tumbled in recent weeks, finally drew buyers.

The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index surged to 110.2 in March from a revised 95 in February, well above expectations.

All index components rose, with Americans' sentiment about present situations seeing its largest gain in 25 years and expectations recording its sharpest jump in nearly a decade.

"Consumers' confidence has been bolstered by the improvement in business and labor market conditions," Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center, said in a statement. "The latest gains are striking."

March has seen the pace of corporate layoffs slow and the stock market rise. More than six months have passed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But the March quarter ending Sunday is expected to show a fifth straight period of profit declines.

"The economy is doing better, but where is profitability?" John Lonski, economist at Moody's Investors Service, said on CNNfn's Street Sweep.

Some companies getting an early look at their books have been pre-announcing shortfalls. Among them, MRO Software (MROI: down $9.20 to $11.98, Research, Estimates), Nasdaq's biggest loser Tuesday, said it will report a second-quarter loss. Analysts expected a profit. MRO joined Boise Cascade (BCC: up $0.06 to $36.33, Research, Estimates) and Stride Rite (SRR: up $0.19 to $8.35, Research, Estimates) among the latest companies to disappoint.

Trying to return to profitability, Ciena (CIEN: up $0.05 to $8.40, Research, Estimates) said it will cut 650 jobs, or 22 percent of its total work force, and take charges of up to $360 million in its second quarter of 2002

Gains in Exxon Mobil (XOM: up $0.89 to $43.74, Research, Estimates), Philip Morris (MO: up $1.27 to $53.23, Research, Estimates) and Alcoa (AA: up $1.09 to $37.84, Research, Estimates) lifted the Dow. Only three of 30 Dow stocks, Procter & Gamble (PG: down $0.30 to $89.45, Research, Estimates), Eastman Kodak (EK: down $0.44 to $31.33, Research, Estimates) and IBM (IBM: down $0.66 to $102.90, Research, Estimates), saw significant losses.

The biggest gainer on the NYSE, lubricant maker Pennzoil-Quaker State (PZL: up $6.01 to $21.50, Research, Estimates), agreed to be bought by Shell Oil, a unit of Royal Dutch Petroleum (RD: up $0.65 to $53.45, Research, Estimates), for about $1.8 billion in cash.

Shares of McAfee.com (MCAF: down $2.96 to $15.55, Research, Estimates) tumbled after Network Associates, (NET: down $2.77 to $22.23, Research, Estimates) which makes security software, said a federal probe into its accounting practices will postpone its offer to buy the McAfee stock it does not already own.

The most-actively traded Nasdaq stock, WorldCom (WCOM: down $0.41 to $6.11, Research, Estimates), continued to slide after UBS Warburg downgraded the long-distance provider to "hold" from "buy."

Among other losers, WebMD (HLTH: down $0.60 to $7.27, Research, Estimates), an Internet health care and information provider, said it sold $300 million in five-year notes convertible into stock.

The slide in the investment banking business showed in results from Morgan Stanley (MWD: up $0.94 to $55.79, Research, Estimates), which said fiscal first-quarter earnings fell to 76 cents a share from 94 cents a year earlier.

Stocks have struggled since last Wednesday, the day after the Federal Reserve signaled that the economy is recovering enough for central bankers to raise interest rates sometime this year.

But speaking in Europe, Dallas Fed president Robert McTeer, who voted against some of the Fed's rate hikes in 1999, hinted that central bankers are in no rush to raise interest rates.

Consumer confidence wasn't the day's only economic data. The government said durable goods orders rose 1.5 percent in February, well above expectations for a 1 percent gain.