Stocks move slightly higher after selloff

NEW YORK - Wall Street drifted to a modestly higher finish Monday as investors sought bargains after last week's selloff and disappointing earnings in the financial sector raised fresh concerns about corporate profits.

Yet despite the gains, there was a sense of increasing sobriety on Wall Street after Friday's 213-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average, and trading was light and erratic. But the fact that the markets did not dramatically continue Friday's selling was a good sign of investor confidence, analysts said.

"You're seeing a little bit of buying come in today, which you'd expect after a selloff," said Jay Suskind, the head trader at Ryan Beck & Co. "The market is looking at what happened Friday rationally, and now it's just a wait-and-see on how other bellwether companies do on their earnings."

The Dow rose 21.38, or 0.2 percent, to 10,688.77. Broader stock indicators were narrowly higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 2.33, or 0.18 percent, to 1,263.82, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 0.77, or 0.03 percent, to 2,248.47.

Bonds were little changed after a morning selloff, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.36 percent from 4.35 percent late Friday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies.

"If you roll back the tape to past quarters, you'll find the same amount of fevered worry about whether or not companies would meet the numbers and whether earnings would be decent, and that kept stocks down at those times," said Joseph Battipaglia, chief investment officer at Ryan Beck & Co. "Once again, we're skeptical about earnings, and that puts a damper on the market short-term. But there's still some potential for some decent surprises and upside from here."