* UPS, Pfizer climb on earnings
* U.S. factory activity rises in Jan, fastest in 7 years
* Egypt ETF on the rise for second day
* Stocks up: S&P 1.6 pct, Dow 1.2 pct, Nasdaq 2 pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news see []
(Updates to late afternoon)
By Edward Krudy
NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks climbed on Tuesday
on signs U.S. manufacturing surged and Pfizer Inc <PFE.N> and
UPS Inc <UPS.N> posted strong results, sending indexes above
key levels as market momentum strengthened.
A strong corporate picture and an improving economy have
taken investors' minds off the political turmoil in Egypt.
Investors capitalized on last week's pullback, sending the Dow
over the psychologically important 12,000.
Scott Marcouiller, chief technical market strategist at
Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis, said the biggest pullback in
six months on Friday had lured investors. "There was an
opportunity for that money that had missed out to jump in," he
said.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> gained 140.36
points, or 1.18 percent, to 12,032.29. The Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> gained 20.93 points, or 1.63 percent, to
1,307.05. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> gained 52.56
points, or 1.95 percent, to 2,752.64.
Pfizer Inc shares rose 5.3 percent to $19.19 after the Dow
component's income and revenue topped estimates. The drugmaker
also announced a new share-repurchase program of up to $5
billion of its common stock.
United Parcel Service Inc, seen as an economic bellwether,
rose 4.2 percent to $74.64 after profit at the world's largest
package deliverer beat estimates and it forecast record-high
earnings in 2011. For details, see []
Signaling improvement in economic growth, the U.S.
manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest pace in nearly
seven years in January, according to the Institute for Supply
Management. The index's employment component rose to is highest
since 1973. []
"Manufacturing seems to clearly be an area of strength, and
it is the combination of manufacturing picking up and the
consumer picking up, that's most of the economy." said Eric
Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment
Management Corp in Chicago.
Investors were less jittery about the turmoil in Egypt even
as mass protests calling for the ouster of President Hosni
Mubarak continued. The CBOE Volatility Index <.VIX>, Wall
Street's fear gauge, fell nearly 10 percent, its biggest drop
in over two months
Trading volume was 5.9 billion shares by early afternoon
trade, with advancing stocks beating declining ones by a ratio
of around 5 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Oil prices <CLc1>, which had risen in the past couple of
days, fell 0.9 percent to $91.38 a barrel, suggesting less
worry about supply problems in the Middle East.
U.S. investors also continued to search for Egyptian
markets exposure. The Van Eck Market Vectors Egypt Index
exchange-trade fund <EGPT.P> was up 2.7 percent after a 7.9
percent jump Monday. The ETF is one of the main instruments for
U.S. investors seeking exposure to Egyptian markets.
Supporting the Nasdaq, Baidu <BIDU.O> shares gained 9.3
percent to $118.69 after the company beat fourth-quarter
estimates and painted a bright near-term outlook.
[]
(Reporting by Edward Krudy, Additional reporting by Caroline
Valetkevitch, Editing by Kenneth Barry)
