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Stocks closed Tuesday mixed, having struggled following a report that U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in January as more Americans worried about the country's weak job market.
But the day capped the best start for stocks in 15 years.
In what was mostly a slow and steady climb, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 3.4 percent in January and the Standard & Poor's 500 gained 4.4 percent, the best performances for both indexes to open a year since 1997.
Investors were encouraged by modest but welcome improvement in the U.S. economy, including an 8.5 percent unemployment rate, the lowest in almost three years. Corporate profits didn't wow anyone — except Apple's — but they were good enough.
"I don't see anything really glamorous or tremendous about the economy or earnings," said Jerry Harris, chief investment strategist at the brokerage Sterne Agee. "But I think they're very acceptable, and things are grinding along."
Key earnings also drove trading Tuesday.
Quarterly profits from drugmakers Pfizer Inc and Eli Lilly & Co both topped expectations. But Pfizer trimmed its 2012 view and Lilly repeated an outlook calling for a drop in 2012 earnings.
RadioShack Corp's stock price plunged one day after warning of a drop in fourth-quarter profit.
A number of other major companies reported results, including Exxon Mobil Corp, U.S. Steel Corp and United Parcel Service Inc.
The results reflected a mixed picture of corporate strength, continuing a trend this earning season.
Stocks started the session optimistically after Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said he hopes to reach a deal with private creditors over the nation’s debt by the end of the week.
U.S. single-family home prices fell more than expected in November, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index, highlighting a sector that continues to struggle to make a meaningful recovery. Futures moved little after the data.
U.S. stocks fell for much of Monday's session, but an afternoon rally cut losses in a sign of the underlying resilience the market has shown early in the year. The S&P held above the psychologically important 1,300 level after crossing it for the first time in six months earlier in January.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Boy you people have got to come up with some better wording!Ramble?
Face it Darlings this Country is in the Crapper!
What do you expect, msnbc.com cares more about putting an ultraliberal slant on all their stories, than hiring copy writers who know how to correct and write coherent articles for the public.
what was the market in 2008 compared to 2012?
In 2008 the DJIA was above 13,500.
Soon be voting time ever thing will be good now.
As a logger once said after he cut of his right leg, "it could be worse, I could have cut off both legs". That is how Wall Street works. As bad as it really is out there it could be worse, of course worse meaning Earth blew up!
The markets are driven by emotion and rumors. The 2008-2009 recession was caused by the worry that Obama might win. Investment analysts are predicting a double dip. What is worrisome is that renting is going up, and housing is being sold cheap to moneyed investors. Banks don't want to loan to people who can't guarantee repayment. They have been burned.
Worse yet is that housing prices are going DOWN! That means trades people have to reduce their wages to compete with housing prices. Wages go down, spending goes down, profits go down, economy goes down.
Unions have to be eliminated. They have blocked the forward progress of the economy of the U.S. too long. Get the unions out of government and education and watch progress bloom.
Not one union is announcing their financials on the net. Not one union is disclosing what they take in, how it is spent, who are running the unions and where the money they collect goes. Not one union declares on the net who the leaders are, their salaries and what they do to earn their ridiculous salaries.
Illinois, which is in tremendous financial difficulties, admitted that it takes over 2 years to FIRE A TEACHER! Meanwhile the teacher is on administrative leave earning over $90,000 and this doesn't take into account the legal fees to fire the incompetent teacher who is protected by the union.