Stocks finish higher, end 3-day losing streak

sandp4pmfinal.top.pngClick chart for more market data. By Hibah Yousuf, staff reporter


NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks closed higher Tuesday, ending a three-day losing streak for the Dow and S&P 500, as investors' attention turned toward corporate earnings. Japan's pledge to buy eurozone bonds helped ease European debt jitters and give underlying support to market sentiment.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) finished up 34 points, or 0.3%, with Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) and Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) leading the advance. Earlier, the blue-chip index had climbed as much as 67 points.

The S&P 500 (SPX) rose 5 points, or 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (COMP) gained 9 points, or 0.3%.

Dow component Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) kicked off the reporting period late Thursday with better-than expected results. Financial Network market strategist Brian Gendreau said he wouldn't be shocked to see quarterly earnings continue to surprise on the upside, which would push stocks upward.

"We're looking ahead into what seems like it'll be a pretty good earnings season," he said.

Sears Holdings (SHLD, Fortune 500) and Apollo Group (APOL) were the big gainers on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. Sears' fourth-quarter and full-year outlook topped analysts' forecasts, while Apollo's quarterly results beat expectations.

While stocks were holding gains, there was some pull back from earlier in the session, which analysts say is to be expected. "There's still a lot of enthusiasm in the market, but we've been rallying for four months now so we may see a bout of weakness," said Steven Goldman, market strategist at Weeden & Co.

Eurozone jitters ease: On Monday, stocks ended just below breakeven as investors worried about a possible bailout for Portugal.

Those concerns faded Tuesday amid reports that Japan will buy eurozone bonds to help prevent the spread of the region's debt crisis, but Gendreau said problems will resurface throughout the year.

"Concerns about Europe's debt problems crop up every couple of weeks, but they tend to get outweighed by U.S. economic or company news," he said. "But I think eurozone issues will weigh on the market for some time to come."

World markets: European stocks ended higher on the talk about a Japanese purchase of eurozone bonds.

"Certainly there's a lot of buying power in Japan, so if they are seriously willing to help Europe by buying up some of those bonds, that will limit -- to a degree -- the downside the sovereign debt crisis poses, said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank.

Britain's FTSE 100 jumped 1%, the DAX in Germany gained 1.3%, and France's CAC 40 climbed 1.6%.

Asian markets ended mixed. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.4%, and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 1%, while Japan's Nikkei edged down 0.3%.

Companies: Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) said it will begin selling Apple's iPhone on Feb. 10, ending AT&T's four-year run as the smartphone's exclusive carrier. Shares of Verizon fell almost 1.6%, while shares of Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) edged down slightly.

Sears (SHLD, Fortune 500) stock jumped 6.3% after the retailer's fourth-quarter outlook topped forecasts. Sears said it expects to earn between $3.39 and $4.12 per share for the quarter ending Jan. 29. Analysts have been looking for earnings of $3.09 per share.

For the year, Sears expects to earn between $130 million and $210 million, or between $1.16 and $1.88 per share.

Apollo Group's (APOL) stock rose 13.4% after the for-profit educator posted fiscal first-quarter earnings that trounced Wall Street expectations despite a 42% drop in new student enrollment during the quarter.

Shares of Tiffany & Co. (TIF) declined 0.6% after the jeweler and luxury goods retailer raised its outlook and posted an 11% rise in sales over the two-month holiday period.

Shares of Talbots (TLB) sank 17.4% Tuesday after the women's retailer posted a 6% drop in same-store sales so far this quarter and lowered its outlook due to weak customer demand.

Lennar (LEN), one of the nation's largest homebuilders, posted quarterly earnings per share of 17 cents before the opening bell. Analysts had forecast 3 cents. Its stock rose nearly 7%.

AMD's (AMD, Fortune 500) stock dropped 9% after the chip maker announced the immediate resignation of CEO Dirk Meyer on Monday. The company named CFO Thomas Seifert as interim chief executive.

Shares of Supervalu (SVU, Fortune 500) tumbled 11.6% after the grocery store chain posted disappointing quarterly results and lowered its guidance for the year, which ends in February.

Shares of Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) slipped 1%, despite its positive earnings news the night before, amid worries about the aluminum producer's rising raw material supply costs.

Economy: Wholesale inventories fell 0.2% in November, the Commerce Department said. Economists were expecting inventories to have risen 1% during the month, after jumping 1.7% in October.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar lost ground against the euro and the British pound, but rose versus the Japanese yen.

Oil for February delivery gained $1.86 to settle at $91.11 a barrel.

Gold futures for February delivery climbed $10.20 to settle at $1,384.30 an ounce.

Bonds: The price of the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 3.34% from 3.30%.

Earlier, the yield had climbed as high as 3.7%.

Treasurys prices trimmed losses after the sale of $32 billion in 3-year notes was met with strong demand. The bid-to-cover ratio, a measure of demand, was 3.06, up from 2.9 in December's auction. To top of page

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Index Last Change % Change
Dow 32,627.97 -234.33 -0.71%
Nasdaq 13,215.24 99.07 0.76%
S&P 500 3,913.10 -2.36 -0.06%
Treasuries 1.73 0.00 0.12%
Data as of 6:29am ET
Company Price Change % Change
Ford Motor Co 8.29 0.05 0.61%
Advanced Micro Devic... 54.59 0.70 1.30%
Cisco Systems Inc 47.49 -2.44 -4.89%
General Electric Co 13.00 -0.16 -1.22%
Kraft Heinz Co 27.84 -2.20 -7.32%
Data as of 2:44pm ET

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