NEW YORK, Dec 8 (AFP) - US stocks swung higher Wednesday as mostly positive corporate news and underlying seasonal strength helped the market rebound from a drubbing a day earlier.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 50.84 points (0.49 percent) to 10,491.42, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 10.46 points (0.49 percent) to 2,125.12 at 1645 GMT.
The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index advanced 5.33 points (0.45 percent) to 1,182.40.
A broker upgrade of General Electric and confirmation of IBM's sale of its personal computer business to Lenovo of China helped sentiment at the opening.
Even though oil prices pushed higher, the dollar bounced off its recent lows, which helped the mood.
Analysts were at a loss to explain Tuesday's slump, which pulled the major indexes down by more than one percent.
"There seems to be no fundamental trigger that caused the market's sharp drop on Tuesday, but after the strength of the market in November, and the big moves in many individual stocks, we believe some profit-taking is normal," said Bob Dickey at RBC Dain Rauscher.
"Since October, these quick pullbacks have been a common pattern that have not led to any serious declines, and we remain overall bullish for the month ahead."
Alfred Goldman at AG Edwards agreed that the two-day dip on Wall Street was "healthy as it works off some of the short-term excesses from last Wednesday's sharp rally and the bigger rally since the late October low."
He added: "Traders and investors should use the current weakness as a buying opportunity before the anticipated year-end rally."
Among active shares, General Electric climbed 24 cents to 35.55 after Lehman Brothers upgraded its outlook for the diversified US conglomerate.
Airline shares were mostly higher as a result of the recent steep declines in crude oil prices. Delta Airlines rose five cents to 7.73 and Northwest added nine cents to 11.03, but American Airlines parent AMR fell four cents to 10.17.
Texas Instruments slumped 63 cents to 24.39 after the semiconductor maker downgraded its revenue and profit outlook for the fourth quarter. The weakness spilled over to the rest of the sector, with Intel off 35 cents at 23.13, Advanced Micro Devices down 69 cents at 22.80 and Micron Technology losing 12 cents to 11.28.
Merck rallied 68 cents to 28.57, rebounding even after the pharmaceutical giant warned of lower earnings for 2005.
Computer animation firm Pixar tumbled 5.71 to 85.35 after announcing a delay in the release of its "Cars" film with the Walt Disney Co. until June 2006.
Bonds were firm. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond dipped to 4.190 percent from 4.226 percent Tuesday and that on the 30-year bond eased to 4.849 percent against 4.896 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
12/08/2004 17:05 GMT - AFP