US stocks mostly climb on robust earnings

James Riley, center, works with fellow traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. Stocks opened mixed on Wall Street, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 holding at 1,500. AP/Richard Drew

NEW YORK—US stocks scored mostly solid gains Tuesday after a batch of better-than-expected company earnings, but Yahoo! and cloud computing group VMware weighed on the Nasdaq.

In closing trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 73.03 points (0.53 percent) at 13,954.96.

The S&P 500, a broad measure of the markets, advanced 7.72 points (0.51 percent) to 1,507.90.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged down a mere 0.64 point (0.02 percent) to 3,153.66.

Investors shrugged off a weaker-than-expected reading in consumer confidence for focus on positive corporate profit tallies, Charles Schwab & Co. said in a market note.

The Nasdaq was “hamstrung by Yahoo Inc’s softer-than-expected guidance and VMware Inc’s disappointing revenue outlook,” it said.