The anniversary was observed at the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq Stock Market and the American Stock Exchange by moments of silence in the morning, marking the times when airplanes struck the two World Trade Center towers and when each tower collapsed.

Investors concerns about terrorism were renewed yesterday, when Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera aired a videotape purportedly of Osama bin Laden.

"Today, we have a little bit of a patriotic rally," said Michael Murphy, head trader at Wachovia Securities in Baltimore.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 39.30, or 0.4 percent, to 9,459.76, according to preliminary calculations. The Dow shed 165.83 in the previous two sessions.

The broader market was also higher. The Nasdaq composite index rose 22.30, or 1.2 percent, to 1,846.11, following a two-day loss of 64.81. Yesterday, the Nasdaq suffered its worst day in nearly two months, dropping 49.62.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index advanced 5.50, or 0.5 percent, to 1,016.42, having lost 20.72 in the previous two sessions.

Wall Street has been climbing higher since mid-March, when its major gauges fell to their lows for the year. The advance was fed by the stronger economic growth and corporate profits that investors have sought for more than three years.

Despite the market’s weakness this week, analysts remain upbeat and say investors are too. The analysts have noted that the market was expected to retreat after the major indexes had pulled together a four-week winning streak.

With positive economic news more prevalent than negative data, the market is able to more easily shrug off disappointments. Today, for example, the market managed to advance despite discouraging news from the Labor Department, which said new claims for unemployment insurance filed last week increased by a seasonally adjusted 3,000 to 422,000, a two-month high.

Given that the economy still has its soft spots, some are concerned that stocks have climbed too high, too fast.

"The market is overextended but it just doesn’t want to come down," Murphy said. "There is still more of a risk to be out of the market than in, but I would like to see it correct a little bit."

Adobe climbed $3.07 to $39.46 after reporting late yesterday that fiscal third-quarter profits beat Wall Street’s estimate by 2 cents a share. Today, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. raised its rating on the software maker to "buy" from "neutral," while JMP Securities upgraded it to "market outperform" from "market perform."

International Business Machines Corp. advanced 8 cents to $87.92 after losing as much as $1.44 earlier when Smith Barney downgraded it to "underperform" from "in-line," saying the stock is overvalued.