US stocks move higher

Wall Street investors, at first troubled by earnings reports, reconsidered their concerns today and decided the results were good enough to warrant a modest advance.

While third-quarter results, which companies began releasing in earnest this week, have lacked the bullish statements about the future that investors wanted to hear, they also have not unveiled huge disappointments.

‘‘There seems to be some stabilisation going ... despite this week of fair to middling earnings reports,’’ said Alan Ackerman, executive vice-president of Fahnestock & Co.

It took Wall Street most of today to put together its advance. Investors were pleased by positive earnings reports from Microsoft and Corning, but disappointed by the companies’ profit warnings. A surge in consumer prices added to the market’s cautious tone.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 40.89, or 0.4%, to 9,204.11.

The broader market was also higher. The Nasdaq composite index rose 18.58, or 1.1%, to 1,671.30, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 4.87, or 0.4%, to close at 1,073.48.

Today’s buying was a turnaround from the rest of the week, when the market largely shrugged off better-than-expected earnings. Despite stumbling a bit, the Dow is still 11.7% above the lows for 2001 set last month. The Nasdaq is up 17.4% and the S&P 500 is up about 11.1%.

Microsoft, which traded lower most of today, closed up dlrs 1.15 at dlrs 57.90. The software maker surpassed expectations, but also warned that second-quarter and full-year earnings results would fall short of expectations.

Corning copied Microsoft, beating forecasts but warning of reduced profits in the fourth quarter. The world’s largest fibre-optics maker declined 12 cents to dlrs 7.90.

Analysts said investors were particularly concerned with what companies have to say about the future, and to what extent the terror attacks, which happened just three weeks before the end of the September 30 quarter, would have an impact on business.

Advancing shares included companies that met or surpassed analysts’ earnings expectations and said business was getting better. Nokia, which beat forecasts by 2 cents a share and said it expected stronger earnings in the fourth quarter, rose dlrs 1.32 to dlrs 20.10. Gillette, which met targets, advanced dlrs 1.58 to dlrs 31.30.

Meanwhile, the biggest increase in inflation at the consumer level since May unnerved the market, which is hoping that the Federal Reserve will continue to lower interest rates to help the economy. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4%, pushed higher by the biggest jump in petrol prices in 15 months, the Labour Department reported.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners slightly more than 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was 1.26 billion shares, the same number of shares as traded Thursday.

The Russell 2000 index, the gauge of smaller company stocks, inched rose 4.64 to 425.70.