Stocks make another late-day advance

US investors, attracted to Wall Street by cheaper prices, today set aside nagging pessimism about the economy and indulged in late-session buying.

The market retraced its moderate losses and turned positive by late afternoon, a move that analysts said was encouraging, especially on a Friday when investors often sell to reduce risk going into the weekend.

‘‘The fact is that (being) down in the morning and up in the afternoon tends to be a bullish indicator,’’ said Scott Bleier, chief investment strategist at Prime Charter Ltd.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 44.70, or 0.5%, at 9,811.15 after falling as much as 29 earlier. The Dow’s performance mirrored that of Wednesday, when the blue chip index turned positive in the last 30 minutes of trading to eke out a 6-point gain.

The broader market followed the same path as the Dow, another repeat of Wednesday’s trading.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 6.67, or 0.3%, to 1,953.18, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index advanced 3.69, or 0.3%, to 1,123.07.

The market, which had been expecting some pullback following weeks of strong rallies, welcomed the late-day advance.

‘‘Money managers want to buy ... and many missed the run from late September,’’ Bleier said.

Lukewarm economic data likely kept the market from moving up sooner in the session.

The Labour Department said its closely watched Consumer Price Index showed no change last month after falling 0.3% in October as America’s first recession in a decade continued to hold down inflation.

Also, the Federal Reserve said output at the country’s factories, mines and utilities was down 0.3% last month, the 13th decline in the past 14 months.

But today and Wednesday aside, the market was weaker this past week amid a spate of layoffs from such companies as American Express and Aetna and profit warnings from Ciena, Lucent Technologies, Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The Dow has not closed above 10,000 all week, after crossing that milestone last week for the first time since before the September 11 terror attacks. Having suffered triple-digit selloffs on Monday and Thursday, the Dow ended the week down 2.4%.

The Nasdaq had a weekly loss of 3.4% and the S&P 500 lost 3.0%.

Wall Street’s gains today ended up being spread across an array of sectors. McDonald’s, which reaffirmed fourth-quarter earnings estimates, rose dlrs 1.16 to dlrs 26.80. Home Depot climbed dlrs 1.81 to dlrs 49.81, and Microsoft advanced dlrs 1.17 to dlrs 67.44.

Among the stocks investors sold were companies that posted disappointing earnings or indicated that business remains difficult.

Oracle slipped 10 cents to dlrs 14.57 on news that sales of new software licenses plunged 27 percent during the quarter ending November 30, and that profits slid 12% as sales of its business software contracted.

Gannett fell 75 cents to dlrs 65.20 after the country’s largest newspaper publisher said it was cancelling next year’s pay rises for about 80 of its top executives, following the lead of other major publishers struggling with a difficult business climate for newspapers.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners slightly more than 8 to 7 on the New York Stock

exchange. Volume was heavy, but down slightly from recent levels.

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks smaller company stocks, rose 2.63, or 0.6%, to 471.30.