US Stocks Close Higher On Strong Banks, Industrials

More buying in bank stocks and a Caterpillar-led gain for industrials helped stocks close slightly higher Tuesday, though a pullback for utilities, including PPL, kept the day's trading in check.

In what has been a common theme in trading for the past few weeks, financials closed broadly in the green. Insurers, banks and even real estate investment trusts have all moved well off their lows of early 2009 and become the investment of choice for a myriad of investors recently.

Earnings reports have been the biggest driver of this stock growth, and though UBS sank 1.17, or 7.6%, to 14.29 after the Swiss bank posted a seventh loss in eight quarters, the rest of the sector kept on trucking. (more)