Positive earnings
cheer Wall Street

NEW YORK » Confident investors, buoyed by positive earnings reports from the financial sector and bullish corporate outlooks for 2005, returned to the market yesterday after weeks of uncertainty, pushing stocks sharply higher.

With hundreds of companies reporting earnings this week and next, investors were cheered by results from Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and others, even as earnings from Dow component 3M Co. disappointed Wall Street.

This week's earnings reports will give Wall Street a much clearer picture of the economy, analysts said, and could draw even more investors back into the market if earnings reports and forecasts for the year ahead remain strong.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 70.79, or 0.67 percent, to 10,628.79. Broader stock indicators moved substantially higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 11.46, or 0.97 percent, at 1,195.98, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 18.13, or 0.87 percent, to 2,106.04.

It was the first time in 2005 that the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq enjoyed back-to-back gains, having risen in Friday's session. The markets were closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

A dip in crude futures also helped the buying after the major indexes start the session lower. Oil prices topped $49 per barrel in early trading, but slumped considerably by midday and fell below $48 by the afternoon. A barrel of light crude settled at $48.38, unchanged from the previous session, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The strong earnings reports from the financial sector led to optimism that the Federal Reserve -- seeing confidence in corporate America and some strength in the dollar over the past week -- would not abandon its gradual pace in raising interest rates.

Bank of America rose 84 cents to $45.73 after posting earnings of 94 cents per share, on par with analysts' expectations. The company said its integration of FleetBoston, which it purchased last year, remained on track.

Charles Schwab Corp. rose 27 cents to $11.39 as the discount brokerage took $62 million in charges due to cost-cutting measures and the closure of its capital markets business. Without the charges, Schwab beat Wall Street profit expectations by a penny per share.

Industrial conglomerate 3M saw its earnings grow 16.3 percent in the fourth quarter, and its quarterly profits fell in line with Wall Street forecasts. The company also projected moderate profit growth in 2005. 3M dropped $1.95 to $82.02.