NEW YORK, Feb 8 (AFP) - US stocks drifted higher Tuesday in the absence of major economic or corporate news, with market sentiment generally positive after a flat session following last week's strong gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21.14 points (0.20 percent) to 10,736.90 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 10.01 points (0.48 percent) to 2,092.04 at 1625 GMT.
The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index advanced 2.82 points (0.23 percent) to 1,204.54.
With no economic or corporate news on tap, the backdrop remained positive with crude oil prices generally stable and the dollar firm.
Bob Dickey at RBC Dain Rauscher said Wall Street sentiment appears strong and that after Monday's modest consolidation the next phase of the market is probably up.
"We believe the fact that the market consolidated without giving back much of the gain (Monday) from last week is a big plus, as long as this holding trend continues," he said.
"It's perhaps too early to call it a definite trend in either case, but these changes often start out small and then build, which is what we are noticing at this time. More importantly, we believe that the near-term surprises in the market will be to the upside."
"February certainly seems to have got some of the bulls back into the game," added Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies and Co.
Nonetheless, Hogan said a cautious stance Tuesday ahead of earnings from tech bellwether Cisco was capping any gains.
"Cisco's always been a bellwether in terms of what they say on IT spending going forward," Hogan said. "So I think it makes sense for us to sort of be on the sidelines."
Cisco shares traded up 20 cents to 18.36 ahead of the announcement.
Among other active shares, Pfizer added 64 cents to 25.55 after Lehman Brothers told clients it believed the pharmaceutical giant was readying a restructuring of its sales and marketing teams.
Hewlett-Packard dipped seven cents to 20.30 percent after it saw its revenue and earnings projections lowered by JP Morgan, which cited competitive and secular pressures as risks to profit margins.
Microsoft rose seven cents to 26.23 after announcing plans to buy anti-virus security provider Sybari Software. The news sent shares of other anti-virus companies into a tailspin with McAfee sliding 1.93 or 7.4 percent to 24.03 and Symantec dropping 1.07 or 4.5 percent to 22.53.
Electronic Data Systems (EDS) tumbled 1.54 to 19.81, a drop of more than seven percent, after its quarterly results came up short of Wall Street estimates.
United Technologies however climbed 85 cents to 101.03 after announcing a 26 percent boost in its quarterly dividend.
McDonald's slipped seven cents to 32.71 despite announcing a strong 5.2 percent increase in same-store January sales.
Bonds extended their recent rally. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond fell to 4.037 percent from 4.052 percent Monday and that on the 30-year bond to 4.379 percent from 4.424 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
02/08/2005 16:36 GMT - AFP