Stocks: Tuesday’s review

European stocks rebounded from a three-month low as earnings from Nordea Bank AB to Kone Oyj topped analyst estimates and sales of new homes in the U.S. exceeded forecasts.

National benchmark indexes gained in all of the 18 western European markets, except Greece. France’s CAC 40 (CAC) rose 2.3 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 increased 0.8 percent and Germany’s DAX Index added 1 percent.

Nordea Bank climbed 3.8 percent to 56.60 kronor after saying first-quarter profit rose 4.5 percent as loan losses receded and it made more money from its lending business. Net income grew to 773 million euros from 740 million euros a year earlier. That beat the 738 million-euro average estimate of analysts.

Kone rallied 8.2 percent to 44.59 euros, the biggest jump in three years. The company reported first-quarter net income of 108.6 million euros, compared with the 94.6 million-euro average estimate.

Cove Energy Plc advanced 4.6 percent to 227 pence after agreeing to be bought by Royal Dutch Shell Plc as Europe’s largest oil company increased its bid to 1.12 billion pounds ($1.8 billion).

U.S. stocks advanced, following yesterday’s decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, amid better-than-estimated earnings at companies from AT&T Inc. to 3M Co. and as data indicated the housing market is stabilizing.

Economic optimism helped fuel gains today as new home sales data indicated that cheaper borrowing costs are helping stabilize the real estate market. Federal Open Market Committee members began a two-day meeting today and tomorrow will probably repeat their plan to keep the benchmark interest rate low at least through late 2014, economists say.

DOW 13,001.60     +74.39 0.58%, S&P 500      1,371.97       +5.03   0.37%, NASDAQ    2,961.60       -8.85       -0.30%

3M (МММ) increased 1.6 percent to $88.49. The U.S. market drove sales at the industrial and transportation unit, the largest division at the St. Paul, Minnesota-based company.

IBM (IBM) gained 0.7 percent to $200. The quarterly payout will rise 10 cents to 85 cents a share. IBM had $5.7 billion remaining from a previous buyback plan, bringing the total available for repurchases to $12.7 billion.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) slumped 3 percent to $57.77. The shares dropped 7.5 percent in two days, the most since January 2009. The retailer is investigating allegations that executives in Mexico paid more than $24 million in bribes to speed expansion there. The company also is the subject of a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation, a person familiar with the probe said yesterday.

Netflix Inc. tumbled 14 percent to $87.68. The world’s largest video-subscription service projected a slowdown in growth of U.S. streaming customers.