Dow Gains 78 Points As Comeback Continues

The Dow’s long journey back from August neared completion on Tuesday as interest rates carved out another 1-1/2-year low in the bond market.

Still lagging the stock market’s recovery from a steep summertime spill, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 78.09 to 8,178.31 on Tuesday, only about 80 points from its Aug. 6 peak of 8,259.31. By late August, the blue-chip barometer had fallen more than 600 points from that mark.

Broader stock measures, meanwhile, extended their record-setting steaks during the mostly quiet session.

With the Dow’s recovery and the broad market’s continued success hinging on the impending barrage of third-quarter profit reports, investors were heartened by late Monday’s news that Motorola had met most analyst forecasts.

“It looks as though there’s a sigh of relief with Motorola’s earnings,” said Robert Streed, senior investment adviser at Northern Trust in Chicago.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 5-to-4 margin on the NYSE, where volume totaled 551.41 million shares as of 4 p.m., up from Monday’s modest pace.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Tuesday:

NYSE

Motorola, up 2-3/16 at 73-3/16.

The telecommunications and semiconductor giant reported a 29 percent improvement in third-quarter profits that was in line with most Wall Street forecasts.

AT&T, up 1-1/2 at 45-7/16.

GTE, up 1-5/8 at 50-5/8.

USA Today reported that AT&T is holding talks with GTE and other telecommunications companies in the aftermath of WorldCom’s bid to acquire MCI Communications.

Reader’s Digest Association class A, down 2-15/16 at 28-1/8.

Reader’s Digest Association class B, down 2-3/4 at 26-3/4.

The publisher disclosed late Monday that it will report an unexpected loss of up to $10.6 million for the July-September quarter. Reader’s Digest, based in Pleasantville, N.Y., said it has been hurt by poor response to promotional mailings and unfavorable exchange rates for overseas revenues.

NASDAQ

ETrade Group, down 5-5/16 at 34.

The on-line brokerage sank for a second session after some of its rivals lowered their trading commissions.

McAfee Associates, up 3-7/8 at 63-3/4.

The maker of antivirus software expects to report an 89 percent improvement in third-quarter profits, slightly better than most analyst forecasts.

Altris Software, down 2-7/8 at 5-1/16.

The maker of document management software warned that it will report an unexpected loss of $2.5 million for the third quarter.