Stocks adance modestly as investors look to hold gains, await data on pending home sales

Wall Street rises modestly a day after surge

NEW YORK — Investors are gently adding to their gains a day after rushing into the stock market.

Stocks rose modestly early Tuesday as investors showed optimism but also a little caution after Monday’s huge gains that followed a series of upbeat economic readings.

Investors are looking for more encouraging news from the housing industry when the National Association of Realtors issues its index on pending home sales. Analysts are expecting the index to have risen slightly, another sign that U.S. home sales are starting to rebound after plunging earlier this year.

After the market closes, homebuilder Hovnanian Enterprises will report second-quarter results.

Better-than-anticipated data on manufacturing, consumer spending and construction spending sent the Dow Jones industrial average and other major indexes up more than 2 percent on Monday. Both the Standard & Poor’s 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes rose to their highest levels this year.

In early trading, the Dow rose 24 to 8,746. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1 to 944, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 8 to 1,836.