NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Stocks remained higher but were off their best levels Wednesday afternoon as a disappointing outlook from Altria Corp. took some of the shine off a bullish view from Oracle Corp. and another round of better-than-expected profit reports.
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Advancers led decliners by a nearly 2 to 1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange and 9 to 6 on the Nasdaq. Big Board volume was about 1 billion shares, while some 1.3 billion shares traded on the Nasdaq.
The move higher comes on the heels of a rally Tuesday that saw the Dow log its biggest gains of 2005.
Nonetheless, strategists wondered how long the rise would last and said they expected the choppy action to continue.
"I still question how much we can get out of this," said Steve Goldman, chief market strategist at Weeden & Co. "I think we've had a two-day bounce now, the Dow's up 150 points and it's gonna get tougher again along the way."
Epiphany's Hughes agreed.
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