Stocks jumped yesterday, with a late-session rally pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a triple-digit gain, as investors bet on a 2002 recovery in anaemic corporate profits.

Despite more bio-terrorism in the form of anthrax in the US postal system, encouraging earnings reports from some of the world's largest corporations, including Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, spurred optimism in a market braced for the worst corporate earnings quarter in a decade. "People are looking to next year and they're optimistic," said Mike Murphy, managing director of trading at First Union Securities. Helping the Dow was some better-than-expected profit news from 3M, diversified maker of thousands of products including Post-It notes and medical software. 3M jumped $5.22, or 5.1 per cent, to $107.39.

Stocks snapped back after sliding on news that two postal workers, who handled mail for Capitol Hill, had died and were being tested for anthrax inhalation. But the market regained lost ground as Wall Street bet government packages designed to boost the economy would soon kick in.