NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. technology shares paced a broader market advance Tuesday, as investors responded favorably to solid earnings from Texas Instruments and other companies, as well as confirmation of the demise of two of Saddam Hussein's sons.

After hours, attention turned to earnings reports from Amazon.com and Amgen, which beat estimates and improved from a year earlier, and Sun Microsystems, which showed some disappointment.

With no economic news due Wednesday, earnings news is likely to continue to dominate trade. Already one-third of the S&P 500 has reported results and by the end of the day Friday, another third will have reported.

Although approximately two-thirds of reported earnings so far have been better than expected, investors' expectations for a recovery have also increased, and as a result, the market's reaction to the first few weeks of earnings has been fairly subdued.

But stocks managed to gain Tuesday, at least partly on the strong earnings from companies such as Texas Instruments and Ameritrade, and Wednesday could bring a follow through, with technical indicators supporting such a move, said David Briggs, head of equity research at Federated Investors.

A variety of influential companies offer results before the bell Wednesday. AOL Time Warner (AOL: up $0.50 to $16.85, Research, Estimates) (CNN/Money's parent) is forecast to have earned 10 cents per share, a penny better than a year earlier. Dow stock Boeing (BA: up $0.22 to $32.57, Research, Estimates) is forecast to have lost 42 cents, down from a profit of 92 cents a year earlier. Fellow Dow stock Eastman Kodak (EK: down $0.81 to $24.59, Research, Estimates) is expected to have earned 29 cents per share, down from 85 cents a year earlier.

After the close Tuesday, Amazon.com (AMZN: down $0.46 to $34.87, Research, Estimates) reported quarterly earnings of 10 cents a share, 4 cents better than expected and an improvement over the loss of 1 cent per share the company posted a year ago. Shares rose 4.5 percent in after-hours trade.

But Sun Microsystems (SUNW: up $0.21 to $4.77, Research, Estimates) reported results of breakeven on a per-share basis in its fiscal fourth quarter, 2 cents less than analysts expected and down from a profit of a penny a share a year earlier. The company also reported worse-than-expected sales, sending shares down almost 6 percent after hours.

Also after the close, No. 1 biotech Amgen (AMGN: down $0.15 to $68.93, Research, Estimates) reported earnings of 49 cents per share, 3 cents better than expected and up from 38 cents a year earlier, due to strong sales of its anemia treatment and immunity-boosting and arthritis drugs. Shares were up 1.7 percent in after-hours trade.

The Nasdaq composite (up 24.69 to 1706.10, Charts) added about 1.5 percent, followed by an advance of just under 1 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 (up 9.31 to 988.11, Charts) index and a gain of about 0.7 percent for the Dow Jones industrial average (up 61.76 to 9158.45, Charts).

Sluggish morning trade turned into an early afternoon rally after reports surfaced that a firefight in the Iraqi town of Mosul likely resulted in the death of two of Hussein's sons, confirmed later by U.S. officials. Although the market has not been too focused on the aftermath of the Iraqi war, the confirmation of the deaths seemed to provide a psychological boost, or at least an excuse to find some bargains.

Reports that the Eiffel Tower caught fire briefly cut the gains until it became clear that the fire had been small and was contained. (For the latest on both stories, go to CNN.com.)

Monday's selloff made investors all the more willing to move back into stocks Tuesday, particularly in technology. Late Monday, Texas Instruments (TXN: up $1.37 to $19.25, Research, Estimates), the leading maker of chips for cell phones, reported a better-than-expected 27 percent increase in second-quarter earnings from a year earlier. Shares rose 7.7 percent and topped the NYSE's most-active list.

Although TI doesn't trade on the Nasdaq, its gains affected a number of tech and telecom issues that are listed there. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index, or the Soxx (up 12.22 to 388.19, Charts), gained almost 3.3 percent.

In other earnings news Tuesday, discount broker Ameritrade (AMTD: up $1.17 to $9.42, Research, Estimates) saw its stock rise 14.2 percent after it reported a profit of 12 cents a share, up from 3 cents a year earlier and better than the 10 cents analysts surveyed by First Call were expecting.

"There are some good stories out there, and I think people are looking at them," said Peter Cardillo, director of research at Global Partners Securities. "You have the tech stocks doing better than the other, with chips up because of TI. There are also a few specific issues that continue to hold the Dow back again, as was the case yesterday."

Among them: continued weakness in Merck (MRK: down $2.01 to $57.81, Research, Estimates), following Monday's weak results, which sent shares down 3.4 percent Tuesday.

In addition, shares of Eastman Kodak (EK: down $0.81 to $24.59, Research, Estimates) declined for the second session in a row, after Monday's $466 million acquisition of dental radiology gear maker PracticeWorks. Late Monday, Standard & Poor's cut its debt rating on Kodak by a notch, saying the purchase will hurt cash flow and its attempts to cut debt.

Market breadth was positive. Advancing stocks beat decliners by nine to seven on the New York Stock Exchange, where 1.43 billion shares traded. On the Nasdaq, where 1.72 billion shares changed hands, the leadership of gainers over losers was nearly two to one.

Treasury prices rallied, pushing the 10-year note yield down to 4.13 percent from 4.21 percent late Monday. The dollar gained against the yen but was lower versus the euro.

NYMEX light sweet crude oil futures fell $1.34 to $29.49 a barrel. COMEX gold settled at $350.70 an ounce.