Wall Street rises as investors focus on U.S. growth

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as investors turned their attention back to the strong earnings picture in the United States and fears of a wave of euro-zone debt defaults ebbed.

Bolstering the U.S. earnings story, Intel Corp said it expects annual earnings growth to double over the next few years. Intel noted that this earnings trend will be helped by expansion in the global personal computer market. That helped push its stock up as much as 1.4 percent to an intraday high of $22.86, although it retraced much of that gain in mid-afternoon trading.

Shares of Walt Disney Co gained 2.2 percent to $36.08 ahead of quarterly results after the bell. The entertainment and media company's performance is an indication of the strength of consumer spending, which accounts for two thirds of economic activity in the United States.

"What happened was for about a week we really got derailed in terms of focus," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer, North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago. "Now we're back to looking at the fundamentals of the U.S. economy, which remain pretty solid.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> gained 30.30 points, or 0.28 percent, to 10,815.44. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> rose 3.07 points, or 0.26 percent, to 1,162.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> added 18.94 points, or 0.80 percent, to 2,393.61.

The more optimistic assessment helped stocks in the financial and technology sectors that had taken the brunt of recent selling, which had pushed major indexes down 7 percent to 9 percent in just four days of trading last week.

Apple Inc rose 2.2 percent to $259.70 while American Express gained 2 percent to $43.94 and was a top boost to the Dow industrials. The BKW bank index <.BKX> rose 1.6 percent.

Helping the biotech sector, Gilead Sciences authorized a program, for the second time this year, to repurchase up to $5 billion in common stock through May 2013.

Gilead's stock rose 3.3 percent to $39.66, while the NYSE Arca Biotech index <.BTK> gained 1.3 percent.

Earnings season continued, with Church & Dwight Co posting a first-quarter profit that beat expectations.

However, the consumer products company, whose products include Arm & Hammer baking soda and Trojan condoms, also gave a weak second-quarter earnings outlook. Its stock fell 2.3 percent to $67.82.

Overseas, Toyota Motor reported fourth-quarter earnings that comfortably beat forecasts. Toyota's U.S.-listed stock rose 1.6 percent to $77.94 on.

Stocks scored their biggest one-day gain in more than a year on Monday after European leaders agreed to a $1 trillion emergency rescue package to stabilize the euro-zone currency. However, concerns remained about the high debt loads of some euro-zone nations.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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