MARKET REPORT

Up 73, Dow has 14,000 in sights

Trader Michael Urkonis, left, and specialist Michael Pistillo work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. Stocks opened mixed on Wall Street, with the Standard & Poor's 500 holding at 1,500. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Michael Urkonis, left, and specialist Michael Pistillo work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. Stocks opened mixed on Wall Street, with the Standard & Poor's 500 holding at 1,500. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

— Pfizer helped keep the stock market rally alive Tuesday. The drug maker’s stock gained after posting strong earnings, pushing the Dow closer to 14,000.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 72.49 points to close at 13,954.42 points, ending higher for the seventh day in eight. The Standard & Poor’s 500 also rose, adding 8 points to 1,507.84 points. The Nas-daq composite dropped less than a point to 3,153.66.

Advancing stocks outpaced declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was above average at 3.9 billion shares.

The January rally looked as if it was running out of steam Monday as stocks pulled back from their highs, but Tuesday they resumed their ascent toward record levels.

The Dow is 6.5 percent higher this month and the S&P 500 is up 5.7 percent. Both indexes are at their highest levels in more than five years.

Pfizer was the biggest gainer in the Dow, advancing 86 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $27.70 after the company said its fourth-quarter profit more than quadrupled because of a $4.8 billion gain from selling its nutrition business and despite competition from generic drugs hurting sales.

“The earnings season is not stellar, it’s not gangbusters, but it’s better than last quarter,” said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential.

Currently, analysts expect fourth-quarter earnings for 2012 to increase by an average of 4.7 percent for S&P 500 companies, according to the latest data from S&P Capital IQ. That’s an improvement on the previous quarter when profit grew by 2.4 percent.

Valero Energy, a refinery operator, was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500 after the company said fourth-quarter profit soared on higher refining margins, as it swapped out foreign crude for cheaper domestic oil.

Investor optimism was checked by a report that showed U.S. consumer confidence sank in January to the lowest level in more than a year as Americans fretted about the economic outlook and higher Social Security taxes. The Conference Board said its consumer-confidence index dropped to 58.6 in January, down from a reading of 66.7 in December.

Stocks also failed to get much of a lift from a report published before the market opened that showed the U.S. housing market is sustaining its recovery.

The Standard & Poor’s/ Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.5 percent in November compared with the same month a year ago, pushed higher by rising sales and a tighter supply of available homes.

“The turnaround in the housing market is for real,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, who says the decline in consumer confidence will likely prove to be temporary as home prices rise.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose by 4 basis points to 2 percent. The yield, which moves inversely to its price, is at its highest level since April.

Business, Pages 26 on 01/30/2013

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