NEW YORK - Stocks advanced Tuesday, erasing most of Monday's drop, as Walgreen Co. led a rally in consumer- staples and health companies and investors speculated the Federal Reserve will buy more debt to safeguard the economy. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 0.5 percent to 1,147.70 after tumbling as much as 0.9 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 46.10 points, or 0.4 percent, to 10,858.14. 'Investors are getting more comfortable with taking some risk as it sounds like the Fed's goal is to increase inflation,' said Eric Green, director of research at Penn Capital Management in Philadelphia. 'If the economy doesn't get better, there seems to be a belief the Fed is going to stimulate through purchases. If it does get better, that's good for stocks also.' The S&P 500 has rallied about 9 percent since the end of August, poised for its best month since April 2009 and its biggest September rally since 1939, as concern eased that Europe's debt crisis and U.S. unemployment will derail the economic rebound. Stocks and Treasury bonds also have gained on speculation the Fed will buy more U.S. government debt to keep interest rates low in a practice known as quantitative easing. The Fed announced after its Sept. 21 meeting that it's prepared to do more to help the economy, spurring speculation policy makers will add Treasury securities to the central bank's holdings. The central bank Tuesday purchased $550 million of Treasury Inflation Protected securities as part of a program to reinvest principal payments on its mortgage holdings into long- term government debt. A bigger-than-estimated decrease in consumer confidence helped fuel speculation of another round of quantitative easing. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index declined to 48.5, lower than forecast, from 53.2 the prior month. The median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a decline to 52.1. Walgreen surged 11 percent to $33.81. The company's fourth-quarter earnings were 53 cents a share excluding items such as costs related to the Duane Reade acquisition, beating the 44-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Rival CVS Caremark climbed 2.7 percent to $31.45. Pfizer advanced 1.5 percent to $17.43. Johnson & Johnson rose 0.6 percent to $62.43. All but five of the 51 health-care stocks in the S&P 500 advanced, sending the group to the biggest advance among 10 industries. The high court agreed to hear an appeal by drug makers seeking to block hospitals and clinics from suing for violations of a federal program that lets them buy medicines at a discount. The court granted review to an appeal by companies including units of Pfizer, Merck and Sanofi-Aventis. The drug makers are challenging a lower court ruling permitting a suit filed by the California county of Santa Clara. Endo Pharmaceuticals rallied 8.1 percent to $33.10 after rising to $34.26 earlier, the highest intraday price since August 2007. The drugmaker agreed to buy Qualitest Pharmaceuticals, a closely held U.S. generic-drug maker, for about $1.2 billion in cash from private-equity firm Apax Partners. Broadwind Energy surged 27 percent to $1.87 on speculation General Electric will acquire the maker of wind towers, according to Raymond James & Associates equity analyst Pavel Molchanov. General Electric, the world's second-biggest maker of wind turbines, said Monday it formed a joint venture with China's Harbin Power Equipment to make and supply equipment in the world's biggest market. Amedisys dropped 16 percent to $24.02 for the biggest retreat in the Russell 2000 Index. The largest U.S. home-nursing provider was asked by federal prosecutors for information related to Medicare reimbursements and billing claims by its 31 Alabama home-health operations. Monsanto fell 8.1 percent to $48.75, bringing its two-day drop to 12 percent, the most since 2008. Initial field data on Monsanto's SmartStax genetically modified corn showed weaker-than-expected performance, Jefferies Group said in a note. Separately, Australia's Nufarm reported 2010 North American sales of glyphosate, a herbicide also sold by Monsanto, fell 44 percent year over year. With assistance from Rita Nazareth in New York. 