"Buyers showed their willingness to step in with a bid once it was apparent that an early slip wasn't hit with any kind of follow-through selling interest," said analysts at Briefing.com.
"Participants pretty much shrugged off news that analysts at Standard & Poor's trimmed Portugal's debt rating another notch lower to BBB-, which is barely above junk status. They also cut Greece's rating two notches to BB-." The cuts added a new challenge to the rescue of the eurozone from a debt crisis in several of its peripheral economies, but seemed to have little impact here. The market also breezed on despite Conference Board data showing that rising food and energy prices were eroding US consumer confidence.
"Consumers' inflation expectations rose significantly in March and their income expectations soured," said the research firm's Lynn Franco. Meanwhile the S&P/Case-Shiller index for 20 main US cities showed prices fell by 3.1 percent at an annualized rate in January and S&P said they appeared to be heading lower than the market bottom in early April 2009.
"Keeping with the trends set in late 2010, January brings us weakening home prices with no real hope in sight for the near future," said S&P's David Blitzer. General Electric added 0.6 percent after it announced it was buying French group Converteam, which specializes in electrification and automation equipment, for $3.2 billion (2.27 billion euros). International Paper rose 4.7 percent after it said it would buy a key stake in Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills for up to $423 million for a foothold in the booming Indian economy. Net retailing giant Amazon gained 3.1 percent on its announcement of an online storage service for music. Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.49 percent from 3.45 percent late Monday, while that for the 30-year climbed to 4.55 percent from 4.49 percent. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.