Caterpillar, Inc. (...

With buyers back in action, US stocks rose to their fresh one-year highs and remained near their high points as optimism grew that an economic recovery, helped by solid third-quarter earnings reports and increased M&A activity, is on cards. 

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 96.28 points, or 0.96%, to close at 10,092.19.  The broader S&P 500 index jumped 10.23 points, or 0.94%, to 1,097.91 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 19.52 points, or 0.91%, to 2,176.32, its highest point since September 26, 2008.  Market breadth was positive, with advancing shares ahead of decliners by a margin of three-to-one.  Only five of the DJIA thirty declined in price.

After the close, iPhone maker Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) reported better-than-estimated numbers, fuelling hopes for the technology industry.  Last week Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Intel Corp’s (NASDAQ:INTC) numbers had come in above expectations.

Although there were some jitters last

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A bit of selling pressure sent major averages lower at the end of an otherwise upbeat week on Wall Street as Bank of America and General Electric’s numbers disappointed investors.  The Dow Jones industrial average, after closing above the 10,000 mark for two successive sessions, finished just below that level.  Despite the drop, stocks managed to post impressive gains on the week even as investors grew jittery about credit losses in the financial sector. 

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) said it lost $2.2 billion during the quarter after it wrote down almost $10 billion in bad loans and General Electric’s (NYSE:GE) revenue numbers were below Street projections.  Higher loan losses aggravated investors’ concerns as Citigroup (NYSE:C) and JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) had also reported higher loan losses during the quarter.  General Electric’s (NYSE:GE) results were impacted by lower earnings at its GE Capital unit.    

The 30-share Dow Jones industrial average fell

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Stocks swung back into action Wednesday after a two-day retreat as the U.S. Federal Reserve’s optimistic comments at the end of a two-day meeting re-energized investors and bolstered hopes that the recession is finally easing.  The Central Bank’s observation that the economy appears to be “leveling out" was optimistic but its subdued outlook on unemployment and inflation took some sheen off that optimism.  The Fed also announced plans to slow the pace of its program to purchase $300 billion worth of Treasury bonds, adding the full amount will be bought by October.

The 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average finished 120 points, or 1.3%, higher.  The broad S&P 500 index rose 11 points, or 1.1%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ composite advanced 29 points, or 1.5%.  On the New York Stock Exchange 1.23 billion shares exchanged hands and advancing stocks outpaced those that fell five-to-two.

Stocks seesawed after the Fed’s announcement, with

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Continued optimism and new signs that the economy is showing signs of resilience pushed stocks higher Monday with the major indexes recording broad based gains and the S&P 500 index zooming off to its highest level since November.  Just a little over a week ago, weak unemployment numbers, weaker-than-expected retail sales and disappointing confidence data had investors worrying and talks of a second stimulus package started to gain ground.  However, impressive earnings numbers, robust outlook from companies and a number of analyst upgrades have boosted investor confidence as they have appeared increasingly eager to participate in riskier bets.   

On Monday stocks hit their highest levels since November 5, as all ten industry groups on the S&P500 moved higher during the session, led by consumer, commodity and industrial stocks.  The gains were led by basic materials (+2.4%), industrial (+1.9%) and oil and gas (+1.5%).  The DJIA added 1.2% or 104

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The market is getting excited about Caterpillar's (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CAT"CAT/a) results this morning. CAT has been at the center of the slowdown, and was one of the first companies that showed the coming recession through slowing earnings (two years ago). So, I'd like to think that CAT will provide signs of a coming recovery, and maybe will be one of the first one to see improvement. Here's today's quote from CEO Jim Owens (a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56K2CP20090721"data via Reuters/a).br /div/divbr /divblockquote"There is still a great deal of economic uncertainty in the world," Jim Owens, the company's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. "But we are seeing signs of stabilization that we hope will set the foundation for an eventual recovery."br //blockquotebr //divdiv/divbr /divTo me, they are selling hope. The numbers weren't pretty, but they did raise their full year outlook, and in a market that wants to go up, thats all ...