Stocks rose Wednesday as investors began to welcome first-quarter earnings reports, cheering Boeing's better-than-expected results and looking for more good news from the technology sector. In merger news, insurance company Liberty Mutual offered $6.2 billion to buy Safeco. The deal, which represents a 51 percent premium above Safeco's closing price on Tuesday, would create the fifth-largest U.S. property and casualty insurer. Light sweet crude oil for June delivery rose 23 cents to $118.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after a U.S. government report showed a larger-than-expected decline in gasoline inventories and a more-than-expected gain in crude-oil supplies. On Tuesday, oil hit a record trading high of $119.90 a barrel. The U.S. dollar rose modestly against the euro and yen after hitting a record low against the euro in the previous session. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 42.99, or 0.3 percent, to 12,763.22. Boeing said profit rose 38 percent in the first quarter to $1.2 billion. Its shares rose 4.5 percent. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.99, or 0.3 percent, to 1,379.93. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 28.27, or 1.2 percent, to 2,405.21. Yahoo reported stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings late Tuesday. Despite the news, Yahoo shares fell as investors await the company's response to Microsoft's unsolicited buyout offer. The New York Stock Exchange composite index rose 9.32 to 9,237.29. The American Stock Exchange composite index fell 8.79 to 2,344.06. And the Russell 2000 index rose 4.40 to 708.11.
