NEW YORK, Sept 13 (AFP) - US stocks swung higher Monday, extending gains of the past few weeks, as Wall Street investors pondered a possible breakout from the market's eight-month trading range.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 19.54 points (0.19 percent) to 10,332.61, while the Nasdaq composite surged 22.54 points (1.19 percent) to 1,916.85 at 1525 GMT.
The Standard and Poor's 500 broad-market index advanced 4.15 points (0.37 percent) to 1,128.07.
After gains over the past few weeks, investors were pondering whether Wall Street would be able to break out of the trading range of the past eight months.
The blue-chip Dow advanced 0.51 percent over the past week and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rallied 2.7 percent, pushing to near the top of the eight-month trading ranges for the major indexes.
"The market has moved up over the past month and the broad-based indices are right at resistance levels that could be overcome in the weeks ahead," said Bob Dickey at RBC Dain Rauscher.
"The average volumes have started to move up again with the return of the investment season and more of this renewed interest would help to fuel the market through these resistance areas."
But Tobias Levkovich at Smith Barney said the market's next move could be down instead of up, projecting year-end closings of 1,025 for the S and P 500 and 9,750 for the Dow blue-chip index before a 2005 rally.
"We still believe that earnings issues could interrupt any rally leading up to the US presidential elections in early November," Levkovich said.
Ed Keon at Wachovia Securities is equally cautious, expressing concern "that the earnings cycle might turn down faster and more dramatically than most investors think, especially for tech stocks."
"This is not just a short-term worry," Keon said. "I think that earnings growth will be well below historical averages over the next several years."
Among active shares, US Airways plunged 59 cents or 40 percent to 87 after the carrier's weekend bankruptcy filing.
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. however rose three cents to 9.73 and Continental Airlines added eight cents to 9.80.
Shares of broadband chipmaker Broadcom rallied 2.57 or more than nine percent to 30.27 even after the company warned late Sunday that third-quarter sales would fall short of expectations.
Wal-Mart added 20 cents to 53.65 after the world's biggest retailer said September sales were growing at a pace of two to four percent.
In the auto sector, DaimlerChrysler climbed 31 cents to 43.36 after company officials predicted solid sales growth though 2012.
Bonds held firm, with the yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond easing to 4.165 percent from 4.180 percent and that on the 30-year bond to 4.960 percent against 4.971 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.