NEW YORK -- A stream of good news has the stock market back on an upward path.
Encouraging corporate and economic reports Wednesday raised hopes that a recovery is taking hold, although investors are still concerned about U.S. unemployment and debt problems in countries such as Greece.
Deere & Co. and Whole Foods jumped after their profit reports topped expectations and the companies raised their forecasts. Upbeat reports on home construction and production at factories also helped lift the market.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 40 points a day after it jumped 170. That rally was also in response to stronger economic and earnings news.
The Commerce Department said construction of homes and apartments rose to an annual rate of 591,000 in January.
A collapse of the housing market helped push the economy into recession, but recent reports have suggested the market is stabilizing. Applications for building permits, a barometer of future activity, fell 4.9 percent. A drop was expected after two months of big growth.
The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, said production at the nation's factories, mines and utilities rose 0.9percent last month. It was the seventh straight month of growth and better than the 0.6percent gain forecast by economists.
Investors also drew reassurance from a brighter assessment of the economy from the Fed. Minutes released from the central bank's last meeting suggest that policymakers remain cautious but that they expect stubborn unemployment rates will begin to fall next year.
The Dow rose 40.43, or 0.4 percent, to 10,309.24. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 4.64, or 0.4 percent, to 1,099.51, while the Nasdaq rose 12.10, or 0.6 percent, to 2,226.29.
Crude oil rose 32 cents to $77.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab, contends that with the big gains Tuesday the market is back in balance after its slide over the past month. The S&P 500 fell 9.2 percent from mid-January to the start of last week.
Deere reported stronger fiscal first-quarter earnings than expected and raised its full-year earnings forecast. Shares of the heavy equipment maker rose $2.70, or 5 percent, to $56.48.
Whole Foods rose $3.83, or 13 percent, to $34.35 after the grocer posted a 79 percent gain in its first-quarter earnings and it boosted its forecast for the year.
Walgreen Co. said it will purchase New York-area drugstore operator Duane Reade for about $623 million in cash. Including $457 million in debt held by Duane Reade, the entire transaction is valued at $1.08 billion. Shares of Walgreen rose 11 cents to $34.19.
Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 1 percent, and France's CAC-40 jumped 1.5 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 2.7 percent.
