- MBS Program Should be Extended: Fed's Bullard
- Wall Street Finds Profits by Reducing Mortgages
- Microsoft, News Corp Weigh Online News Pact
- Warren Buffett, Bill Gates 'Walk & Talk' At Columbia
- Senate Democrats at Odds Over Health Care Bill
- What if a Recovery Is All in Your Head?
- Thanksgiving Week Stuffed With Economic News
- 10 Tips to Get Out of Debt
- This Season: Everybody's A Scrooge
- CNBC VIDEO: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates 'Walk & Talk' at Columbia University
- U.S. Stocks Slip, Dollar Rises
- How Stock Investors Can Play Holiday Travel
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Hirschhorn: Greed...or Fear
- My Top 10 Tech Toys for the Holidays
- iPhone a Better Gaming Platform Than Android?
- May Day For Dendreon
- 100% Mortgage Financing From USDA
More Videos
Text Size 
Writer
Stocks eked out modest gains in the final minutes of trading Tuesday, a lackluster session as investors took a breather and did a little profit-taking after Monday's blockbuster rally.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 percent to close at 9,320.19. The S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent, keeping it above the 1,000 mark, a level it achieved Monday for the first time since November. The Nasdaq added 0.1 percent.
Bank and airline stocks were among the day's bright spots, while investors sold tech, materials and energy stocks.
Caterpillar [CAT
Loading...
()
] was the biggest percentage gainer on the Dow, followed by Travelers [TRV
Loading...
()
] and Bank of America [BAC
Loading...
()
]
Bank of America added another 2.1 percent, after being one of Monday's biggest gainers following news that the bank has agreed to pay $33 million to settle charges by the SEC that it made false and misleading statements during the Merrill Lynch acquisition and that it has hired Sallie Krawcheck, the former CFO of Citigroup, to lead its global wealth and investment-management unit, as a prelude to finding a successor to CEO Ken Lewis.
Pending-home sales jumped 3.6 percent in June, blowing past expectations for a 0.6-percent increase. It was the fifth straight monthly gain and the longest such streak in six years.
It will still take a few months for actual sales to catch up to pending-home sales as some deals that are signed and recorded as pending fail to close because of low appraisal values, Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist of High Frequency Economics, pointed out in a note to clients after the report was released. "[B]ut the key message from the index is that volumes are picking up," he said.
In the morning's other economic news, consumer spending rose 0.4 percent in June, slightly more than expected, helped by spending on nondurable goods. Inflation also played a role: Adjusted for inflation, spending fell 0.1 percent. Income fell 1.3 percent, the biggest drop in four-and-a-half years.
Big deal news this morning: PepsiCo [PEP
Loading...
()
] has agreed to buy its two biggest bottlers. The soft-drink and snack company will pay $36.50 a share for Pepsi Bottling Group and $28.50 a share for PepsiAmericas. The combined value of the deals is about $7.8 billion.
And from the oh-to-be-a-fly-on-the-wall file: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner issued an "expletive-laced" warning to top regulators to stop the public criticism of Obama's financial-regulation plan, according to a front page article in today's Wall Street Journal. Attending the tense hourlong meeting were Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and FDIC Chair Sheila Bair.
Goldman Sachs [GS
Loading...
()
] was also among the handful of gainers in the banking sector following a report in the New York Post that management has told employees to avoid any big-ticket purchases to avoid any perception that the bank is "living high on the hog" amid allegations that it played a key role in creating the current financial crisis.
General Electric shares [GE
Loading...
()
] skidded after the conglomerate said it has agreed to pay $50 million to the SEC to settle accounting-fraud charges. The company, also the parent of CNBC, neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.
Autos are expected to be back in the news as the House approved another $2 billion for the "Cash for Clunkers" program and the measure now moves to the Senate for a vote by the end of the week. Senate Democrats are having a hard time shoring up Republican support.
Ford [F
Loading...
()
] added to their gains from Monday, when the automaker reported its first positive sales report in two years, helped by the "Clunkers" program.
American depositary shares of Toyota [TM
Loading...
()
] fell, even as the Japanese automaker slashed its projected loss for the full year.
EBay's [EBAY
Loading...
()
] shares fell after an outage affecting its PayPal service, which took it down for about an hour yesterday. The company blames the outage on "internal" problems.
In this morning's earnings, CVS Caremark [CVS
Loading...
()
] reported its profit rose and raised its outlook.
Duke Energy [DUK
Loading...
()
] reported its profit took a hit in the latest quarter from the ebb in oil prices.
Oil slipped Tuesday but remained above $70 a barrel.
This Week:
TUESDAY: Earnings from Kraft, Electronic Arts after the bell
WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage applications; Challenger, ADP reports on jobs; ISM services index; factory orders; weekly oil inventories; Earnings from P&G, Cisco, News Corp. and Prudential
THURSDAY: Chain-store sales; weekly jobless claims; Earnings from Sirius XM, Unilever
FRIDAY: July jobs report; consumer credit; Earnings from Liberty Media
Send comments to .
- Technology can make or break a fortune in the world of alternative energy.
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates discuss the economy and other subjects with CNBC's Becky Quick.
- Many people are facing the holidays with substantially smaller incomes. Here’s how some are adapting.
- Jim Cramer is a proponent of stocks that pay healthy dividends, and here are his top five dividend plays.
- The homebuyer's tax credit jacked sales for a while, but 2010 is looking weak. Now what?
- CNBC’s technology reporter Jim Goldman guides you through the best gadgets to buy this holiday season.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes