MARKET REPORT

Dow makes 8th gain in 9 sessions

Specialists Gregg Maloney, left, and Peter Elkins, center, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. Stocks are wavering in early trading on Wall Street as U.S. companies turn in a mixed batch of earnings reports. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialists Gregg Maloney, left, and Peter Elkins, center, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. Stocks are wavering in early trading on Wall Street as U.S. companies turn in a mixed batch of earnings reports. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

— Strong earnings reports from big U.S. companies helped push the Dow Jones industrial average to its eighth gain in nine sessions Tuesday.

DuPont, Verizon and Travelers Cos., three of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow, closed higher after reporting their financial results for the final quarter of 2012.

The Dow closed up 62.51 points, or 0.5 percent, at 13,712.21. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 6.58, or 0.4 percent, to 1,492.56. The Nasdaq composite average rose 8.47, or 0.3 percent, to 3,143.18.

Rising stocks outnumbered falling ones by a 2-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was slightly above the recent average at 3.5 billion shares.

The indexes edged between small gains and losses in the morning. Around noon, the Dow rose and stayed higher for the rest of the day.

Earnings have been strong enough this season to drive a five-day winning streak for the S&P 500 and put the Dow on track for its biggest monthly percentage gain since October 2011. Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago, said traders have been encouraged by the number of companies beating analysts’ profit expectations.

“Granted, we have diminished expectations, but companies are doing a decent jobbeating on the profit side,” he said. The revenue side of the equation has been weaker, Ablin said, preventing a stronger updraft for stocks. Traders might gain more confidence if companies reported stronger demand from emerging markets and Europe, he said.

“The U.S. has been pulling this wagon by itself for the last couple years, and now we’re facing some austerity measures. We could certainly use a hand,” he said.

Shares of property and casualty insurer Travelers Cos., rose strongly after it said core income categories like investments and premiums written rose.

Net income fell because of claims filed in the wake of superstorm Sandy. The stock shot up $1.64, or 2.2 percent, to $77.95, an all-time closing high. Travelers has risen nearly 27 percent over the past 12 months.

The market was closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Tech giants Google and IBM reported solid earnings gains after the market closed. Tech companies’ results are being watched closely because many of them have warned about a weak fourth quarter.

Google shares soared after saying its fourth-quarter earnings rose 7 percent as online advertisers spent more money in pursuit of Christmas shoppers. The stock gained more than 4 percent in after-hours trading.

IBM said its net income rose 6 percent and its stock rose 3.5 percent in late trading.

Apple Inc. reports after the bell today.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was unchanged at 1.84 percent.

Business, Pages 24 on 01/23/2013

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