NEW YORK: US stocks were rose sharply Tuesday amid a batch of solid company earnings reports and as investors awaited the start of a two-day Federal Reserve meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 102.17 points (0.82 percent) to 12,582.05 by around 1545 GMT.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gained 24.55 points (0.87 percent) at 2,850.43 and the S&P 500, a broad measure of the markets, added 11.80 points (0.88 percent) at 1,347.05.
Strong earnings from Ford and manufacturing conglomerate 3M saw their stocks rise around two percent.
Ford, the second-largest US automaker, said its first-quarter profit surged 22 percent from a year ago, revved up by sales of fuel-efficient vehicles as it coped with higher commodity prices.
Meanwhile 3M posted record sales in the first quarter, with strong growth in Asia despite the impact of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
The Minnesota-based company said all time high sales of $7.3 billion helped lock in a more modest profit of around $1.1 billion, up 16 percent from the same period a year before.
Coca-Cola was marginally up after reporting a profit that missed market expectations.
Meanwhile traders awaited the conclusion Wednesday of a two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve's top policy panel.
The panel is weighing whether the economic recovery can sustain itself with less central bank stimulus.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) itself is expected to lower its growth forecasts during the meeting.
It is widely expected to announce Wednesday after the meeting that it will maintain ultra-low interest rates to support the recovery.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will hold his first post-FOMC press conference, the first for any Fed chairman.
‘Tomorrow brings the FOMC decision and the highly anticipated press conference to discuss it. Everybody knows that and is everybody is waiting for that,’ said Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com.
‘Today is a 'tweener' day if there ever was one, so it wouldn't surprise us if the same wait-and-see attitude permeated the market’ as it did Monday, he said.
US stocks traded mixed Monday in weak trade. The Dow dropped 0.21 percent and the S&P 500 fell 0.16 percent, while the Nasdaq gained 0.20 percent.
The bond market gained. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.34 percent from 3.36 percent late Monday. The 30-year Treasury slipped to 4.42 percent from 4.46 percent.
Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
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