STOCKS soared yesterday as investors snapped up some of the issues shunned last week and the corporate earnings season started with some better than expected results.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 60.33 points at 5,592.92. In the broader market, advancing issues trounced declines 1,668 to 734 on moderate volume of 346 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

"We've gotten the negative pre released earnings out of the way and we're getting some good numbers so this market can rally to 5,700 over the next week or two," said Mr Phil Orlando, chief, investment officer at Value Line Asset Management.

Jitters over inflation and corporate earnings for the first quarter sparked a sell off last week of more than 150 points in the Dow - its worst fall of the year.

Analysts said investors also were encouraged by a drop in long term interest rates following a jump last week.