The Dow Jones industrial average gained 84.66 points to close at 6,740.74, rallying to snap a five-session losing streak that had sliced 228 points off the barometer of 30 big U.S. companies.
Broader measures were mostly higher.
Advancers outnumbered decliners by a narrow margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,265 up, 1,195 down and 862 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 496.35 million shares vs. 526.43 million yesterday.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock list rose 7.48 to 772.50, and the NYSE's composite index rose 3.23 to 406.09. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.82 to 1,355.19, and the American Stock Exchange index fell 0.40 to 587.67.
For the second straight day, IBM Corp. was the Dow's biggest gainer, padding yesterday's 5-point recovery from a 22-point, four-session slide.
The Dow also benefited from healthy profit reports by two more of its components, DuPont and Philip Morris.
But two of the NYSE's most active issues were companies that announced discouraging earning news: Brinker International, a Dallas-based restaurant operator; and 360 Communications, a Chicago-based wireless communications concern.
Bonds were barely higher after gyrating sharply in the morning following a report saying orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket durable goods - a gauge of the manufacturing sector - unexpectedly fell 1.7 percent in December.
The decline contrasted with other recent data suggesting economic growth accelerated at year's end, threatening to squeeze inflationary pressures such as rising wages. The latest inflation reports, however, have revealed no significant jump in most prices, spurring optimism that next week's strategy meeting at the Federal Reserve will not produce an interest rate increase aimed at slowing things down.
Bonds fell sharply just after this morning's report, boosting the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond - a key determinant of corporate and consumer borrowing costs - from late yesterday's 6.91 percent to nearly 6.97 percent. But as bond prices recovered during the session, the yield fell to 6.90 percent.