US stocks rise; Dow hits new 5 year high

US stocks rose Tuesday, with the Dow hitting a fresh five-year high, as investors weighed company earnings and a mixed batch of economic data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 72.49 points (0.52 percent) to 13,954.42, just 1.5 percent below its all-time closing high on October 9, 2007. The S&P 500, a broad measure of the markets, advanced 7.66 points (0.51 percent) to 1,507.84, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was flat, down a mere 0.64 point (0.02 percent) at 3,153.66. "It just seems to be a bold move higher, with nothing else going on," said Steven Rosen of Societe Generale. "It is not a big move though." "Given some seemingly negative economic news," Joe Bell of Schaeffer's Investment Research noted, "the market showed great resilience." Investors shrugged off a weaker-than-expected consumer confidence reading to focus on positive corporate profit tallies. Home prices continued to show a recovery in the housing market. The action came as the Federal Reserve opened a two-day meeting amid expectations the Fed will keep ultra-loose monetary policy unchanged. Pfizer, the world's biggest pharmaceutical company, led the Dow gainers, jumping 3.2 percent after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that topped expectations. Hewlett-Packard was the blue-chip laggard, sliding 3.2 percent. Ford slumped 4.6 percent after posting stronger-than-expected earnings but mixed forecasts for 2013. The Nasdaq was "hamstrung by Yahoo Inc's softer-than-expected guidance and VMware Inc's disappointing revenue outlook," Charles Schwab & Co. said in a market note. Yahoo! lost 3.0 percent and VMWare, a virtualization software and cloud computing company, plunged 21.5 percent. On the Nasdaq, Apple added 1.9 percent after debuting a new iPad with more storage capacity. Research in Motion tumbled 3.2 percent a day ahead of its launch of the BlackBerry 10 smartphone. Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 1.99 percent from 1.97 percent late Monday, while the yield on the 30-year bond climbed to 3.17 percent from 3.15 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.