Stocks Rise on Optimism for Corporate Earnings

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Major U.S. stock averages recorded firm gains Wednesday after Alcoa(AA) ushered in the earnings season with stronger-than-expected revenue amid Wall Street's increasingly subdued estimates on fourth-quarter corporate growth.

Constellation Brands(STZ) followed up on Alcoa's upbeat announcement with a solid quarterly release of its own.

Earnings season is expected to kick into high gear next week as the big banks release their quarterly results. Wells Fargo's(WFC) report is scheduled for this Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped by 62 points, or 0.5%, to 13,391.

Breadth was positive, with winners edging losers 18 to 12. The top percentage blue-chip gainers were Boeing(BA) , Pfizer(PFE) , Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) and UnitedHealth Group(UNH) . Procter & Gamble(PG) also rose on Wednesday.

Procter & Gamble has announced the appointment of Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren to its board of directors, effective immediately. P&G director Johnathan Rodgers has decided not to seek re-election at P&G's annual shareholder meeting in October, choosing to retire from the board at that time. Shares were up 0.51%.

Sinking to the bottom were Bank of America(BAC) , Exxon(XOM) and AT&T(T) .

Bank of America shares were down 4.6% after the stock was cut to "neutral" from "outperform" at Credit Suisse, based on valuation.

The S&P 500 rose 4 points, or 0.3%, to 1,461. The Nasdaq added 14 points, or 0.5%, to 3,106.

All sectors in the broad market were advancing, led higher by consumer cyclicals, transportation, capital goods and conglomerates.

Volumes totaled 3.62 billion shares on the Big Board and 1.73 billion shares on the Nasdaq. Advancers were outpacing decliners by a ratio of 2.1-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange and 1.9-to-1 on the Nasdaq.

Mark Newton, chief technical analyst at Greywolf, was anticipating more upside for stocks into the end of the week.