NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks rallied Wednesday, bouncing back after two days of selling, as investors welcomed bullish earnings from Procter & Gamble and other blue chips.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 74.20 to 11,199.93, Charts) gained 0.6 percent according to early tallies, and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (up 7.63 to 1,278.55, Charts) index gained around 0.5 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite (up 16.82 to 2,078.81, Charts) jumped 0.8 percent.

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The Russell 2000 (up 6.92 to 696.81, Charts) index of small-cap stocks climbed around 1 percent.

Treasury prices inched higher, lowering the corresponding yields. The dollar gained versus other major currencies. Oil and gold prices both rose.

Stocks had risen even more substantially through the midafternoon but lost a little steam heading into the close.

"We had some decent earnings today, but I just don't see any momentum in this market," said Greg Church, president of Church Capital. "I think the market has one eye on the Fed and one on the Mideast."

The market sank Monday and Tuesday on worries that inflationary signs in the recent economic news could mean the Federal Reserve's interest-rate-hiking campaign isn't done.

Wednesday's market showed some relief from the worries, but such concerns are unlikely to disappear ahead of next Tuesday's Fed meeting, said Tim Heekin, head of stock trading at Thomas Weisel Partners. Because of this it is unlikely the market will be able to do much more than bounce back and forth within its recent trading range, he said.

"I just don't think there's enough of a catalyst right now," he added.

He said investors aren't going to be willing to make broader moves until they get some clarity about how the rest of the year is going to go. That may become clearer after Friday's employment report and next Tuesday's Fed meeting.

The central bank has raised its Fed funds rate, an overnight bank lending rate, 17 straight times since June 2004, from 1 percent to 5.25 percent. Investors are unsure as to whether another quarter-point rate hike is on tap for the next policy meeting, Aug. 8th.

Traders are now betting there's a 38 percent chance that the central bank will boost rates another quarter point next week, up from a 35 percent probability late Tuesday, according to futures contracts traded in Chicago.

Nasdaq and S&P futures pointed to a flat-to-higher opening for stocks Thursday, when fair value is taken into account.

Thursday brings the government's read on June factory orders, expected to rebound from the previous month. The Institute for Supply Management's nonmanufacturing index for July is also due Thursday. That report as well is expected to show a rebound from the previous month.

Starbucks (Charts) could be active Thursday. After the close of trade, the coffee retailer reported quarterly earnings that rose from a year ago and met estimates.

However, the company's July sales at outlets open a year or more, or same-store sales, missed expectations. Shares slumped 9 percent in extended-hours trading.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners topped losers by 11 to 5 on volume of nearly 1.75 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers topped decliners 3 to 2 as nearly 1.79 billion shares changed hands.

Procter & Gamble (up $2.36 to $58.29, Charts), a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, reported fiscal fourth-quarter sales and earnings that rose from a year earlier and topped forecasts.

The maker of Tide laundry detergent and other products also forecast current-quarter earnings in a range that could miss expectations. But investors focused on the actual reported earnings, sending the shares up 4.2 percent.

Hewlett Packard (up $0.83 to $32.50, Charts), Alcoa (up $0.51 to $29.65, Charts), AT&T (up $0.82 to $30.58, Charts), Microsoft (up $0.31 to $24.30, Charts) and Walt Disney (up $0.45 to $29.80, Charts) were the Dow's other big gainers.

Time Warner (up $0.42 to $16.67, Charts) reported quarterly earnings that rose from a year ago and topped estimates. The parent of CNNMoney also announced it would offer AOL's e-mail and Web services for free. Shares gained around 2.6 percent.

Cigna (up $9.44 to $102.10, Charts) reported quarterly sales and earnings that beat expectations, thanks to strength across its businesses. The U.S. health insurer also boosted its 2006 earnings forecast. The stock jumped 11 percent.

Shares of Adobe Systems (up $3.94 to $32.28, Charts) surged nearly 14 percent after the software maker said late Wednesday that third-quarter earnings and revenue would meet targets, helping to quell some worries about a slowdown for its business.

That helped boost the Goldman Sachs Software (Charts) index by 2.9 percent.

Shares of Ford Motor (up $0.38 to $6.96, Charts) rose nearly 6 percent after the company said that it had hired a mergers and acquisitions expert to advise the automaker's CEO.

The gold rally boosted gold stocks, with the Gold Bugs (up $8.56 to $347.22, Charts) index climbing 2.5 percent.

On the downside, Pfizer (down $0.38 to $25.61, Charts) lost 1.5 percent and topped the New York Stock Exchange's most-actives list on concerns about a court ruling that could affect the time line of its Lipitor patent protection.

A U.S. appeals court agreed with an earlier ruling against a generic version of the drugmaker's cholesterol drug, preserving the basic Lipitor patent, which doesn't expire until March 2010. But the court also reversed a second patent that extends through 2011.

Rambus (down $4.33 to $12.65, Charts) slumped 25.5 percent in active Nasdaq trading after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ruled that the computer tech developer unlawfully monopolized chip markets. The ruling means that the company may not be able to collect royalties on certain patents.

CheckFree (down $5.93 to $37.20, Charts) slumped 13.8 percent after reporting results that missed forecasts. The maker of software for online bill paying also warned that current-quarter earnings and revenue will miss estimates.

U.S. light crude oil for September delivery jumped 90 cents to settle at $75.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, off its highs, after the government's weekly inventory report.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.96 percent from 4.97 percent late Tuesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The dollar gained versus the yen and euro.

COMEX gold for December delivery rose $5.30 to settle at $664.10 an ounce.

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