Strong earnings reports from big U.S. companies helped push the Dow Jones industrial average to its eighth gain in nine sessions Tuesday.

DuPont, Verizon and Travelers Cos., three of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow, closed higher after reporting their financial results for the final quarter of 2012.

Tuesday was the first trading day this week. The market was closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The Dow closed up 62.51 points, or 0.5 percent, at 13,712.21.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 6.58, or 0.4 percent, to 1,492.56.

The Nasdaq composite average rose 8.47, or 0.3 percent, to 3,143.18.

For the year:

The Dow is up 608.07, or 4.6 percent.

The S&P 500 is up 66.37, or 4.7 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 123.67, or 4.1 percent.