Stocks Soar as Global Worries Subside

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks enjoyed a broad rally on Tuesday as a strong global growth forecast from the International Monetary Fund, a pair of successful Spanish bond auctions and strong corporate results boosted investor sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 194 points, or 1.5%, to finish at 13,115, just below a session-high of 13,131. All 30 components of the blue-chip index finished in the green, with Walt Disney (DIS), Kraft (KFT) and General Electric (GE) posting the biggest percentage gains.

The S&P 500 rose 21 points, or 1.5% to close at 1391, making a solid break above its closely watched 50-day moving average of 1370.

The Nasdaq was the biggest winner, jumping 54 points, or nearly 2%, to settle at 3043 as investors anticipated earnings from tech heavyweights including IBM (IBM), Intel (INTC), Yahoo! (YHOO) after the closing bell.

Apple (AAPL) broke its five-day losing streak, rising 5.1% to $609.70 on volume of 36.3 million, well ahead of the trailing three-month daily average churn of 21.9 million.

The initial reaction to the late round of earnings from tech was mixed though. Shares of Yahoo! were rising 2% in after-market trading hours after gaining 1.45% during the session, after the company said profits rose 38% to 23 cents per share, beating estimates for 17 cents.

Investors will likely pay more attention to any update CEO Scott Thompson provides on the conference call about recent restructuring efforts. Thompson unveiled plans earlier this month to lay off 2,000 employees, or 14% of the work force, and realigned Yahoo! into three divisions.

Shares of IBM were losing 2% in after-market trading, even though it beat estimates on the bottom line and raised its guidance to 15 cents per share, above consensus.

Investors were not impressed with Intel's results either, although the chipmaker also beat estimates with an earnings per share of 56 cents on revenues of $12.9 billion.

Earlier on Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund hiked its global growth forecast to 3.5% from 3.3% for 2012 and boosted its U.S. growth outlook to 2.1% from 1.8%. The IMF said that "some optimism has returned" to the world economy but also cautioned that the optimism should be "tempered." The IMF said that growth in the United Kingdom should speed up as well, by 0.8% rather than the previously forecast 0.6%.

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