Stocks higher on earnings reports

Wall Street regained its composure Tuesday, marching higher after companies including Merrill Lynch & Co. and International Business Machines Corp. beat earnings expectations.

The Nasdaq composite index hit a high for the year as the market anticipated after-the-close earnings reports from Yahoo Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc. But it was the earnings reports from IBM and Merrill that reassured investors Tuesday after disappointing earnings from Citigroup Inc. on Monday halted three weeks of stock market gains.

Stocks maintained their momentum on the expectation of strong earnings reports by Intel Corp., Amgen Inc. and Motorola Inc., which reported after the close of regular trading.

The tech-dominated Nasdaq rose 28.31, or 1.32 percent, to 2,173.18, while the Dow Jones industrial average rose 71.57, or 0.68 percent, to 10,646.56 The Dow fell 65.84 Monday.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 8.22, or 0.67 percent, to 1,229.35.

Despite the day’s gains, the market is about even with where it was last week, said Peter Martin, senior technical analyst for Prudential Equity Group. “In the very short term, it’s a just a tired market.”

Bonds rose, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note falling to 4.19 percent from 4.22 percent late Monday. The U.S. dollar was up against other major currencies in European trading.

Crude oil futures rose. A barrel of light, sweet crude settled at $57.46, up 14 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In the closely watched housing market, Commerce Department data showed construction of new homes and apartments was flat in June, providing an indication that the red-hot housing market may be cooling off. June’s performance was far below the 1.1 percent increase private economists had been expecting.

Advancers led decliners by more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange where volume came to 1.56 billion shares, up sharply from 1.20 billion Monday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 10.30, or 1.56 percent, to 668.86.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.05 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.24 percent, Germany’s DAX index was up 1.08 percent, and France’s CAC-40 was up 1.39 percent.