US stocks close higher

Bargain-hunting investors sent the US stock market higher today.

Wall Street enjoyed a solid advance by late afternoon after investors spent much of the day considering what the Federal Reserve's seventh interest rate cut will mean for the economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished a choppy session up 102.76 at 10,276.90, the Nasdaq composite index rose 28.71 to 1,860.01 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 8.05 to end at 1,165.31.

Investors had been alternating between worries that the quarter-point cut, which the Fed made on Tuesday, would not be enough to reinvigorate the economy and relief that the central bank did not think the economy needed a bigger cut.

However, buyers were likely to be prompted by cheaper prices from Tuesday's sell-off rather than optimism about an economic turnaround in the near future, analysts said.

Among the winners were companies that indicated business was getting better. Dow industrial General Motors climbed $1.50 to $57.20 after affirming its third-quarter earnings outlook.

The tech sector got a boost from semiconductor equipment makers, which reported $764 million in orders in July and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.67, meaning $67 of orders were received for every $100 of product shipped.

July's results were stronger than Wall Street expected. Triquint Semiconductor rose $2.92 to $22.32 and Applied Materials advanced $1.89 to $43.90.

Meanwhile, companies that acknowledged business continues to suffer were weak. AOL Time Warner fell 40 cents to $39.50 after announcing it is cutting 1,700 jobs as it deals with a slumping advertising market.

JC Penney fell $1.33 to $25.05 after affirming its earnings estimates for the third quarter and the year. At the low end of its ranges, Penney would miss analysts' expectations.