Stocks Make a Modest Recovery Amid Worry over Earnings, Rates
NEW YORK -- Stock prices rebounded only modestly from their sharp drop Monday as worries about corporate earnings and interest rates made for another day of sluggish trading.</br></br>Buyers focused largely on growth stocks, especially those in the consumer sector, in an effort to dodge any possible disappointments in second-quarter earnings reports.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 11.38 to 2893.56 after posting its sharpest loss in five months Monday, when the 30-stock average fell 53.71 points. A rally in Philip Morris and solid gains among other blue-chip consumer issues fueled the recovery.</br></br>Trading activity, however, improved only marginally from Monday's pace as the plunge in prices failed to stimulate much bargain-hunting among investors. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 134,930,000 shares; in the prior session, 133,470,000 changed hands.</br></br>Many institutions will close their books on the second quarter Friday, the last day on which trades can be made for settlement before the end of the period. With that deadline approaching, "People are saying, `Well, the market's had a nice run. What do we do here?' " said Larry Greenwald, a block trader at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.