Mixed fortunes for US stocks

Strong bank earnings pushed the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index to new 22-month highs.

But yesterday was a day of mixed fortunes for the US market, as technology stocks lagged on disappointing news from Lucent Technologies and Motorola.

The Dow rose 94.96, or 0.9%, to close at 10,623.62. It was the highest close for the index of 30 actively traded industrial stocks since March 19, 2002 when it ended the day at 10,635.25.

The Nasdaq composite index was down 5.53, or 0.3%, at 2,142.45. The S&P 500 gained 8.85, or 0.8%, to 1,147.62 - its highest close since March 22, 2002 when it finished at 1,148.70.

JP Morgan Chase & Co gained 1.01 to close at 40.10 after reporting profits of 1.86 billion, well above Wall Street's estimates. Merrill Lynch lost 58 cents to 59.60, despite beating expectations for the fourth quarter and reporting its best-ever year of earnings.

Decliners included telecommunications manufacturer Lucent Technologies, which lost 33 cents to close at 4.42 after it reported profit results that beat expectations, but forecast future earnings to be flat to only slightly higher.

Motorola fell 24 cents to close at 16.81 after beating expectations with fourth-quarter earnings that nearly tripled last year's results. But analysts were less than impressed by a 3% decline in mobile phone sales.

There was also some weakness in semiconductor stocks, with Advanced Micro Devices dropping 1.48 to close at 15.90. AMD posted its first profit in more than two years after the close yesterday and beat analyst expectations, but said future sales could decline.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners more than 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was at 1.76 billion, compared to 1.71 billion Tuesday. The Russell 2000 index, which tracks smaller company stocks, was down 0.50, or 0.1%, at 597.48.