U.S. stocks advanced, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher for the fifth time in six days, as concern eased that Europe’s sovereign debt crisis will derail the global economic recovery.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. gained at least 1.2 percent and European stocks rose on improved demand for Portuguese and Polish bonds. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. added 1.6 percent as KKR & Co. and Perella Weinberg Partners LP were said to be in talks to hire its U.S. proprietary trading group. Apple Inc. rallied 2 percent after UBS AG raised its profit and share-price estimates.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent to 1,098.87 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 46.32 points, or 0.5 percent, to 10,387.01.

“There’s increasing appetite for riskier assets,” said Michael Mullaney, who helps manage $9 billion at Fiduciary Trust Co. in Boston. “Any kind of stability signal coming out of Europe will boost that demand. There’s a lot of cash on the sidelines. The latest economic figures in the U.S. were encouraging. We’re seeing a pop in an oversold market.”

The S&P 500 has fallen 9.7 percent from its 2010 high in April amid concern a slow-to-recover U.S. job market and less spending by indebted European nations will curb the recovery. The drop pushed the index’s valuation to 11.9 times estimated profits in the next year, near the lowest since March 2009.

European Bond Sales

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 1 percent as the premium that investors demand to hold Portuguese 10-year government bonds instead of benchmark German bunds fell from the most on record after today’s sale of debt by the Iberian nation. A sale of Polish five-year bonds attracted the biggest demand since 2008 after the government promised to cut its deficit.

Financial companies had the biggest gain among 10 industries in the S&P 500, rising 1.1 percent as a group. The 24-company KBW Bank Index rallied 1.7 percent.

JPMorgan rose 2.2 percent to $39.12 for the biggest increase in the Dow, while Bank of America gained 1.2 percent to $13.37. Both stocks lost more than 2.1 percent yesterday on concern about the European debt crisis.

“This is a market dominated by short-term concerns,” said David Kelly, who helps oversee $445 billion as chief market strategist for JPMorgan Funds in New York. “It’s not a long- term, logical, fundamental market. We’re seeing a knee-jerk reaction after yesterday’s selloff. The talk of a double dip recession in 2010 is a little bit like Hurricane Earl — none of that actually showed Earl hitting land, but you never know.”

‘Moderate Growth’

A report today from the Federal Reserve showed “economic growth at a moderate pace” at five regional banks, while two pointed to “positive developments or net improvements.” The remaining five banks said conditions were mixed or decelerating.

The report underscores the Fed’s view that while the recovery from the worst recession in seven decades has cooled, the economy isn’t relapsing into a contraction. In a speech last month in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Fed chairman Ben S. Bernanke said “the preconditions for a pickup in growth in 2011 appear to remain in place.”

President Barack Obama said in Ohio today that the economic recovery has been “painfully slow,” and he called on Congress to enact measures to cut taxes for businesses and middle-income Americans while raising taxes for the wealthiest citizens.

Goldman Sachs rose 1.6 percent to $147.54. KKR and Perella Weinberg are in talks to hire Goldman Sachs’s U.S. proprietary trading group, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Huntington Bancshares Inc. climbed 5.29 percent to $5.77. Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its recommendation on shares of Ohio’s third-largest lender to “strong buy” from “outperform.”

Apple Rallies

Apple gained 2 percent to $262.92. UBS, which has a “buy” rating for Apple, raised its share-price estimate to $350 from $340. Earnings-per-share forecasts were also increased to $14.51 in 2010 and $18.09 in 2011. The previous estimates were $14.50 and $16.62, respectively.

“Momentum continues,” UBS’s New York-based analyst Maynard J. Um wrote in a note dated yesterday. “We remain bullish on iPad momentum and demand. Our retail checks indicate that demand for the iPhone 4 remains robust.”

A gauge of raw-materials producers in the S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent as copper, lead, nickel and tin rallied in London. Alcoa Inc. had the second-biggest advance in the Dow, rising 1.9 percent to $11.07.

Staples, Costco

Staples Inc. increased 2 percent to $19.04. The world’s largest office-supply retailer was raised to “buy” from “neutral” at Goldman Sachs and was added to the firm’s conviction buy list.

Investors who bought Dow average stocks on the November election day in the middle year of U.S. presidencies since 1918 generated profits through New Year’s Eve 70 percent of the time, according to Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s Dan Wantrobski.

The Dow jumped an average of 5 percent during the two months between the November congressional elections to Dec. 31 in the 16 winning Dow years over the past 23 midterm cycles. The average return for all midterm voting years is 2.3 percent, while the seven losing years had a negative return of 4 percent on average, Wantrobski said.

“We continue to be encouraged by the stats we uncover behind the midterm election cycle phenomenon,” Wantrobski, Philadelphia-based director of technical research at Janney Montgomery, wrote in a note to clients on Sept. 1. “The results are favorable in our opinion.”

Intel Slips

Intel Corp. led a gauge of chip companies in the S&P 500 down 0.4 percent, the second-largest decline among 24 industries. The biggest maker of semiconductors was cut to “neutral” from “buy” at UBS. The share-price estimate is $19.50. Intel lost 1.2 percent to $17.90.

UBS also cut its recommendation for Hewlett-Packard Co. to “neutral” from “buy.” The world’s largest computer maker slumped 4 percent to $38.33, the biggest decline in the Dow.

Visa Inc. dropped 4.1 percent to $68.55. The biggest payments network was cut to “underperform” from “neutral” at Bank of America, which cited debit regulation issues and growing structural concerns.

MGM Resorts International also moved on an analyst call, jumping 6.8 percent to $10.22 after Soleil Securities Corp. raised its recommendation on the biggest casino operator on the Las Vegas Strip to “buy” from “hold.”

Airgas Inc. fell 1.8 percent to $64.59 after rejecting a sweetened $5.5 billion bid from Air Products & Chemicals Inc. and committing to solicit other offers by June if shareholders vote against holding two annual meetings in the space of four months. Airgas directors unanimously rejected the unsolicited takeover bid of $65.50 a share, a $2 increase, because it “grossly undervalues Airgas,” the company said today.

New York Times Co. advanced 8 percent to $8.38. Shares of the newspaper publisher rose on renewed takeover speculation.

“The speculators are betting that someone may come in and bid for the New York Times,” said Chris Rich, head options strategist at JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC in Chicago.

To contact the reporters on this story: Rita Nazareth in New York at rnazareth@bloomberg.net; Nikolaj Gammeltoft in New York at ngammeltoft@bloomberg.net

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