NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Blue chips rose Wednesday, as investors made tentative buys after Tuesday's selloff, following a mild read on inflation and some upbeat corporate news.

But the Nasdaq struggled to stay above breakeven, due to weakness in a number of tech sectors.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 62.59 to 10,673.79, Charts) and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (up 6.64 to 1,190.80, Charts) index both added around 0.6 percent, thanks to strength in consumer, financial, homebuilding and oil stocks.

The tech-fueled Nasdaq composite (up 0.93 to 2,031.25, Charts) ended the session unchanged.

A benign read on consumer prices cooled some recent worries about inflation. The report helped ease the selling pressure after Tuesday's big decline, which saw the Dow register its biggest one-day point loss in 21 months.

But analysts said that Wednesday's gains were fairly so-so considering the intensity of the previous session's selloff, and said that the Nasdaq's sluggishness was a concern as well.

"Today's market is comforting in that it's back a bit, but it just doesn't have the feel of yesterday having made a bottom," said Barry Hyman, equity strategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum.

"I look at a market here that is going to continue to be impacted by rates going higher," Hyman added, "and I think it's heading into one of those post-earnings periods where it meanders. It's hard to see any substantive reason for us to move higher."

In the short term, the economic news over the next two days could give stocks a little boost.

Reports are due Thursday before the bell on weekly jobless claims and durable goods orders.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment is expected to have inched up to 308,000 last week from 302,000 the previous week, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

Durable goods orders are expected to have risen 0.1 percent in January, after rising 1.1 percent in December.

On Friday, the revised read on fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth is due.

The consumer price index (CPI), the government's main inflation gauge, rose 0.1 percent in January, after a revised reading of unchanged in the previous month.

The so-called "core" CPI, which excludes often volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent, after rising 0.2 percent in December. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought both CPI and core CPI would rise 0.2 percent.

After last week's surprise jump in the producer price index (PPI), the mostly in-line CPI provided some relief.

"The CPI took some of the sting out of the market, but it didn't knock out the implications of the PPI," said John Hughes, market analyst at Shields & Co.

Providing relief in the afternoon was the release of the minutes from the most recent monetary policy-setting meeting. The minutes reiterated what the central bankers have been saying recently, that short-term interest rates can continue to rise at a measured pace, but that they will respond to changes in the economy as is needed. (To read the minutes, click here.)

Giving the Dow industrials some oomph was Procter & Gamble (up $1.24 to $53.49, Research), which rose nearly 2.4 percent after UBS upgraded it to "buy" from "neutral." UBS also lifted its 12-month price target for Procter & Gamble to $65 from $63, following its recent purchase of Gillette (up $1.02 to $50.75, Research), Reuters reported.

In addition to P&G, other Dow gainers included Altria (up $1.23 to $64.35, Research), Caterpillar (up $1.00 to $90.46, Research), AIG (up $0.75 to $68.65, Research) and Merck (up $0.55 to $31.76, Research).

The Nasdaq had a tougher time, due to weakness in some of its more influential technology sectors.

Chips were weaker, with Intel (down $0.45 to $23.31, Research) losing nearly two percent.

Apple Computer (up $2.94 to $88.23, Research) gained 3.5 percent after introducing new versions of its iPod on Wednesday, including a lower priced model of its popular Mini.

Tivo (up $0.68 to $4.38, Research) popped more than 18 percent on rumors that Apple Computer may try to buy the digital video recorder, analysts speculated.

Oracle (up $0.29 to $12.95, Research) and eBay (up $0.74 to $41.84, Research) both gained, although other software and Internet shares slipped.

Novell (down $0.50 to $5.62, Research) tumbled more than 8 percent after the software maker reported a profit of 3 cents a share late Tuesday, flat with a year ago and a penny more than expected.

Ciena (down $0.35 to $2.40, Research) shares fell close to 12 percent after the telecom reported a narrower quarterly loss, in line with estimates and issued a fiscal second-quarter sales forecast that is higher than analysts' current expectations.

Accredo Health (up $11.87 to $42.11, Research), a drugmaker, surged 39 percent after agreeing to be bought by Medco Health Solutions (down $0.29 to $43.14, Research), a pharmacy benefit manager, in a cash and stock deal worth about $2.2 billion.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers five to three on volume of nearly 1.50 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers edged decliners by a narrow margin on volume of 1.88 billion shares.

Treasury prices recovered after a four-session decline, lowering the 10-year note yield to 4.26 percent from 4.28 percent Tuesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar gained versus the yen and euro, recovering after Tuesday's big decline.

U.S. light crude oil for April delivery fell 25 cents to settle at $51.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold rose 30 cents to trade at $436.10 an ounce, backing off after Tuesday's big run up.