The gains were the 1st on the week after stocks retreated from the S&P 500′s highest mark in 5 yrs tapped last Friday.

Industry Watch

Strong: Industrials, Health Care

Weak: Financials, Telecoms, Utilities

Herbalife Ltd NYSE: HLF stock rose 4.2% to 39.95 in its most active day of trading in the company’s history, after hedge fund manager Dan Loeb took a large stake in the nutritional supplements seller. Prominent Short-seller Bill Ackman has accused the company of being a “Pyramid Scheme,” which Herbalife has denied.

Shares of Alcoa Inc NYSE:AA were down 0.5% to 9.08 after early gains, following the company’s earnings release after the bell Tuesday. The largest US aluminum producer said it expects global demand for aluminum to grow in 2013.

Overall, corporate profits were expected to beat the previous Quarter’s meager 0.1% rise. Both earnings and revenues in Q-4 are expected to have grown by 1.9%, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Financials lagged the broader market, and the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF 16.94, -0.03) shed 0.2%.

Citigroup NYSE:C 42.04, -0.42 slipped 1.0% and Goldman Sachs NYSE:GS 134.32, +1.27 added 1.0%.

Bank of America NYSE:BAC 11.43, -0.55 lost 4.6%, and was a notable under-performer. This morning, Credit Suisse NYSE:CS downgraded the stock to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform.’ In addition, Bank of America is taking part in a 2-day hearing on its successor liability over the Countrywide legacy assets.

Also of note, LTN reported early Wednesday that Morgan Stanley NYSE:MS 19.62, -0.03 will cut 1,600 jobs in its institutional securities business. The expected layoffs would amount to about 6.0% of the company’s workforce within the investment banking unit.

Facebook Inc NASDAQ:FB shares rose above 30 for the first time since July 2012, trading up 5.3% at 30.59.

Clearwire Corp NASDAQ:CLWR shares rose 7.2% to 3.13 after Dish Network bid $2.28-B for the company, beating out a previous Sprint NYSE:S offer and setting the stage for a takeover battle for the wireless service provider that owns crucial mobile spectrum.

Apollo Group NASDAQ:APOL 19.32, -1.62 slid after heavier early losses, a day after it reported lower student sign-ups for the third straight quarter and cut its operating profit outlook for Y 2013. Apollo’s shares were last off 7.8% at $9.32.

Among industrials, Boeing NYSE:BA 76.76, +2.63 added 3.6% to rebound from recent weakness which followed concerns about mechanical issues with the company’s new Dreamliner 787 jet. Today’s economic data was limited to the MBA Mortgage index, which pointed to an 11.7% week-over-week increase in mortgage applications. This followed the prior week’s decline of 10.4%.

The US Treasury will hold a $13-B 30-yr reopening.