Stocks End Herky-Jerky Session With Gains

Updated from 4:09 p.m. EST

Stocks on Wall Street ended an erratic session with gains Tuesday afternoon, as traders weighed encouraging news from several big technology companies against troubles among financial firms and automotive companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 151.17 points, or 1.8%, at 8424.75. The S&P 500 gained 8.36 points, or 1%, at 859.11. The Nasdaq was up 1.22 points, or 0.1%, at 1483.27.

Two pieces of news helped to buoy technology shares during highly volatile trading. Computer hardware and software maker Hewlett-Packard (HPQ Quote) was partly responsible, after the company said its fourth-quarter profit would exceed analysts' expectations. Shares of H-P, part of the Dow, added 14% to $33.57.

Charles Rotblut, senior market analyst at Zacks Investment Research, said that H-P's earnings beat "actually was a very big surprise." He said that eight analysts had cut their quarterly forecasts in the past month, including five in the last week.

However, "It does seem like it's a bit of an outlier, given everything else we're seeing going on," said Rotblut. "Based on the economic trends we're seeing, I really don't have a very optimistic view for the technology sector in the short term."

Another boost came from Yahoo! (YHOO Quote), which said CEO Jerry Yang is set to step down from his position as soon as the Internet firm can find a replacement. Yang's tenure was recently marked by a refusal to sell his company to Microsoft (MSFT Quote). Yahoo! shares rose 8.7% to $11.55.

Financial firms continued to look weak as the new session arrived. Asset manager BlackRock (BLK Quote) joined the set of companies to announce layoffs by announcing its first round of job cuts in its 20-year history, according to a report by Bloomberg. BlackRock shares finished down 0.2% at $106.24.

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