Stocks rise as Dow breaks 5-day losing streak

• Fed meeting kicks off today as Wall Street eyes bigger QE haircut
• Dow ends 5-day losing streak
• Earnings beats from DuPont and Ford boost sentiment

NEW YORK -- Stocks closed higher Tuesday and the Dow Jones industrial average broke a five-session losing streak as investors await the outcome of a two-day Federal Reserve policy meeting that began Tuesday.

Fed officials are expected to announce a reduction in its bond buying program by another $10 billion to $65 billion as the U.S. economy continues to improve.

Wall Street got a lift from stabilization in topsy-turvy emerging markets, where central bankers there took steps to address recent currency market volatility and head off a potential crisis.

The Dow rose 90.68 points, or 0.6%, to 15,928.56. The Standard & Poor's 500 gained 10.94 points, or 0.6%, to 1,792.50 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 14.35 points, or 0.4%, to 4,097.96.

Apple shares (AAPL) tumbled 8% to $506.50 as the company gave a weak forecast after the close of the prior session.

Benchmark crude for March delivery rose $1.45 to $97.17 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 92 cents to settle at $95.72 on Monday.

Economic news was mixed. The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday consumer confidence has risen to its highest point since August on the strength of a brighter view of the job market and business conditions. On the other hand, durable good orders fell sharply, down 4.3% in December.

The Dow's 3.77% drop in the previous five-day span was its worst since April 2012 and the nearly 621-point drop is its worst since November 2011.

U.S. stocks ended down Monday as Wall Street failed to rebound from last week's big sell-off sparked by turbulence in emerging markets. The overall market is off to a bad start in 2014, after gaining almost 30% last year.

Stocks have been weighed down by stock valuations that are no longer cheap, an economic slowdown in China and the recent turbulence in developing economies. The start of the fourth-quarter earnings season has also gotten off to a sluggish start, witnessed by Apple, which lowered its guidance for the coming quarter after topping earnings and revenue expectations for the just-ended quarter.

Wall Street, however, got a boost before the market's opening bell when blue chip stocks DuPont and Ford Motor topped quarterly profit projections. Wall Street is hoping earnings start powering higher to offset some of the worries related to troubles in some emerging markets, where currencies are under pressure.

The earnings picture has brightened somewhat, as the number of companies that have topped analyst expectations has risen to 69%, above the 10-year average of 63%, according to Thomson Reuters. The expected growth rate for the fourth quarter has also jumped to 8.4%, up from 7.6% on Jan. 1.

Wall Street is trying to discern whether the Dow's 4.5% drop to start 2014 is merely a pullback or correction, or the start of a larger downturn.

In Asia on Tuesday India's central bank raised its key interest rate to tame stubbornly high inflation and cut its economic growth forecast. The announcement of a quarter percentage point increase in the lending rate Tuesday to 8% sent Indian stocks lower. That added to losses accumulated during a sell-off in emerging markets that began late last week.

Trading elsewhere in Asia was restrained. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.2% to 14,980.16 and South Korea's Kospi edged up 0.3% to 1,916.93.

European shares closed higher, with Britain's FTSE 100 index rising 0.3% to 6,572.33. Germany's DAX index gained 0.6% to 9,406.91 and France's CAC 40 index added 1% to 4,185.29.

Contributing: Associated Press