Markets come back
to finish in black

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By Amy Baldwin
Associated Press

NEW YORK >> Wall Steet investors at first troubled by earnings reports reconsidered their concerns today, and decided the results were good enough to warrant a modest late-session advance.

While third-quarter results, which companies began releasing in earnest this past week, have lacked the bullish statements about the future that investors want to hear, they also haven't yielded huge disappointments.

"There seems to be some stabilization going ... despite this week of fair to middling earnings reports," said Alan Ackerman, executive vice president of Fahnestock & Co.

It took Wall Street most of today to put together its advance. Investors were pleased by positive earnings reports from Microsoft and Corning, but disappointed by the companies' profit warnings. A surge in consumer prices added to the market's cautious tone.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 40.89 to 9,204.11, according to preliminary calculations.

The broader market was also higher. The Nasdaq composite index rose 18.58 to 1,671.30, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 4.87 to 1,073.48.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners slightly more than 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,683 rising, 1,380 falling and 219 unchanged.

Volume was 1.26 billion shares, the same number of shares traded yesterday.

The Russell 2000 index, the gauge of smaller company stocks, inched rose 4.64 to 425.70. The NYSE composite index rose 2.09 to 554.32. The American Stock Exchange composite index rose 1.01 to 813.30.

The price of the Treasury's 10-year note fell 10/32 to 103, while its yield rose 4 basis points to 4.614. The price of the 30-year note fell 19/32 to 100 7/32; its yield rose 4 basis points to 5.358.

Today's buying was a turnaround from the rest of the week, when the market largely shrugged off better-than-expected earnings.