Earnings Cheer Pushes Up DJIA

By DONNA KARDOS YESALAVICH and GEOFFREY ROGOW Stocks bounced Thursday as optimism about earnings season continued to escalate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 131.95 points, or 1.3%, to 10081.31 one day after a late-session selloff pushed the benchmark back beneath 10000. Travelersled the benchmark's gains, jumping 7.7% after it said its third-quarter profit more than quadrupled on sharply lower catastrophic losses and improved investment returns. Strong earnings reports from other bellwethers including 3Mand McDonald'salso aided the Dow's climb. Earnings reports from technology companies dominate the market action, as AT&T and EMC both post results before the opening bell. Plus, Microsoft makes a big launch. MarketWatch's Rex Crum reports. Traders said sentiment toward the latest round of earnings reports improved as the session progressed. Several noted that corporate conference calls in the late morning were especially helpful for investor confidence. Third-quarter earnings have come in above Wall Street estimates. While market participants are still critical of the reports as they look to justify the S&P 500's 60% jump over the past seven months, any weakness in stocks lately has been met with a wave of buying. "Certainly the market's trickier here, as more people have been dragged reluctantly into it," said Steve Auth, chief investment officer at Federated Investors, noting stocks' recent fragility. Still, he added, "clearly there's a lot of buying interest in the market that keeps coming in and buying these sell-offs." An improved forecast of economic activity from the Conference Board also provided a lift, allowing investors to largely brush aside a disappointing weekly jobs report. The Standard & Poor's 500 advanced 11.51 points, or 1.1%, to 1092.91, helped by a 3% rise in its financial sector. Basic-materials and consumer-discretionary stocks also jumped, with those sectors gaining more than 1% each. PNC Financial Servicessoared 13% after posting a third-quarter profit of $559 million and saying it could re-pay its $7.6 billion in government support within the next 15 months. ProLogis gained 9.1% after the real-estate investment trust swung to a third-quarter loss but its chief executive said the industrial-property market was "firming up." The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 14.56 points, or 0.7%, to 2165.29, trailing other indexes after online auctioneer eBayreported a 29% earnings decline and issued disappointing fourth-quarter guidance. Its shares fell 4.2%. After trading lower for much of the session, oil pared some of its decline late to close down just 18 cents at $81.19 a barrel, helping energy stocks turn positive. The dollar turned positive against the yen but was lower against the euro. The two-year note edged up 1/32 to yield 0.951%, while the 10-year Treasury note fell 5/32 to yield 3.411%. Write to Donna Kardos Yesalavich at donna.yesalavich@dowjones.com and Geoffrey Rogow at geoffrey.rogow@dowjones.com