Stocks climb on blue-chip earnings

U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday as blue-chip companies beat earnings expectations and new-home sales for February were revised upward by almost 13%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU +0.76%) was up by 98 points at 13,026. The S&P 500 ($INX +0.44%) was up 6 points at 1,373. The Nasdaq ($COMPX -0.04%) was up 2 points to 2,973.

Tech stocks were showing some cracks. Apple (AAPL -1.84%) was falling 2% ahead of its quarterly earnings report, due after the market closes. Netflix (NFLX -13.86%) was tanking after its first-quarter numbers, and Symantec (SYMC -9.91%) was losing ground after it delivered a below-consensus outlook. <!--EndofExcerptMarker-->

Stocks sold off Monday as questions about Europe's economic and political stability rattled Wall Street.

Consumer confidence in April declined to 69.2, according to the Conference Board, from a revised March reading of 69.5. Analysts had expected a decrease to 69.7 in April from March's original reading of 70.2, based on a Thomson Reuters survey.

New-home sales in March fell 7.1% to a 328,000 annual rate, according to the Commerce Department, but the drop was from a revised figure of 353,000 units in February -- up 12.8% from the originally reported 313,000 units. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected sales of 320,000 in March.

The Commerce Department also said inventory of U.S. homes for sale fell to a record low of 144,000 units in March. At that rate, houses could be cleared from the market in about 5.3 months, a rise from five months in February.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's Housing Price Index increased 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis in February from January. 

"It's the spring buying season," said Michael Sansoterra, a fund manager at RidgeWorth. "Most people expect housing to be bumpy."

The 20-city S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index for February showed prices falling 0.8% compared to January but rising 0.15% month over month on a seasonally adjusted basis. The index is down 3.5% from a year earlier, marking a slowdown from January's year-over-year drop of 3.8%.