Investors Nudge Rally Forward With Small Gains (ext: ABCNews/TheStreet)

Investors made few big moves Tuesday after stocks rocketed 14 percent in just 16 days. The market put up modest gains as many traders held their positions and looked toward the Labor Department's employment report on Friday.

Tuesday's mostly upbeat economic data helped prevent the market's pause from turning into the type of slide that can follow big jumps. Analysts have been predicting stocks would idle after such a strong run, and some saw investor caution at work.

Still, investors did receive a few more doses of positive news Tuesday, enough to keep them from giving up hope. A rise in consumer spending last month and a fifth straight monthly increase in pending home sales provided new evidence that the economy could be stabilizing.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 33.63 points, or 0.4%, to 9320.19, and the S&P 500 advanced 3.02 points, or 0.3%, to 1005.65. The Nasdaq Composite tacked on 2.7 points, or 0.1%, to 2011.31.
The S&P 500 on Monday topped 1000 for the first time since November 2008, after better-than-expected data on U.S. manufacturing and a surprise increase in construction spending. But "it's been time for a pause for a while based on the technical conditions of the market," says Paul Nolte, director of investments, at Hinsdale Associates, "we are certainly overbought.

"Investors I think are very heartened, or have been at least, over the earnings numbers and some of the economic data that are pointing to maybe the worst of the recession at least being over and the possibility of economic growth in a near future," says Nolte. "So they've been bidding up stocks for much of July -- and it is time to take a breather. Whether they will or not is obviously another story."
Some analysts predict stocks will continue to climb as investors use dips to put money into the market. Recent corporate earnings reports and economic data have indicated that the nearly two-year-long recession could be ending.