Dow Industrials Log Third Up Day in Row; Oil Checks the Gains
BLUE-CHIP STOCKS extended their baby rally into a third day, and after the closing bell, nervous investors were rewarded with some upbeat profit reports.</br></br>During regular hours, hopes for quarterly earnings gains helped push the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 27.56 points, or 0.26%, to 10486.02, still down 2.8% since the year began.</br></br>After falling for most of the month of March and nearing their lows for the year, stocks this week got a bounce. Still, the three-day rally has amounted to just 81.72 points on the Dow industrials, reflecting worries about high oil prices, rising interest rates and recent corporate turmoil.</br></br>"We are holding these levels but we don't seem to be moving up a great deal," said Tim Heekin, director of trading at San Francisco brokerage house Thomas Weisel Partners. "I pick up the paper every day and there seems to be a large stock in almost every sector that is running into trouble," he said.</br></br>After regular trading hours, investors reacted strongly to profit news from Alcoa and Bed Bath & Beyond. In afterhours trading, the aluminum maker rose 2.7%, while the retailer advanced 6%.