Rebound in commodities carries stocks higher

Stocks rose in morning trading Tuesday as commodities rebounded ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting on interest rates. Benefiting from a weaker dollar, commodities like oil and gold bounced back from the previous day's sell-off, sending energy and material stocks higher. The gains in stocks and commodities came as the Federal Reserve prepared for a two-day rate-setting meeting. Investors are hoping the Fed will offer up a clearer picture of the economic recovery, as well as some indication of when it may decide to raise interest rates. The Fed is widely expected to keep rates at their record low of near zero for the time being. The market appears to be following a well established pattern — where brief selloffs are met with more buying as investors fear missing out on a continued rally. With stocks up more than 50 percent since bottoming in March, analysts have been forecasting a pullback, warning that uninterrupted gains are unsustainable. But for weeks, any dips in stocks have been moderate and short-lived. "We haven't had a negative catalyst," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "Reluctantly, investors are continually being dragged into a market that is finding a path of least resistance to the upside." The consensus on Wall Street is that the economy is healing despite ongoing challenges like unemployment. But investors still have doubts over how strong the recovery will be, and whether the stock market's massive, nearly seven-month advance accurately reflects such a recovery. On Tuesday, investors will also get more data on the housing industry when the Federal Housing Finance Agency releases its index on home prices in July. In the first half hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 37.41, or 0.4 percent, to 9,816.27. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 5.41, or 0.5 percent, to 1,070.07, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 10.03, or 0.5 percent, to 2,148.07.