Major Averages Close Firmly Positive In Reaction To Data

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Thursday, more than offsetting the weakness seen in the previous session and continuing to recover from Monday's sell-off. The markets benefited from a positive reaction to the latest batch of U.S. economic data.

While most of the major sectors moved to the upside, housing stocks posted particularly strong gains on the day. Reflecting the strength in the housing sector, the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index surged up by 3.1 percent.

Vulcan Materials (VMC) helped to lead the housing sector higher, with the construction materials producer jumping 9.1 percent after reporting strong fourth quarter earnings growth.

Significant strength was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 2.9 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. With the gain, the index continued to recover from Monday's five-month closing low.

Networking stocks also showed a strong move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Networking Index up by 2.4 percent. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) posted a standout gain after reporting its first quarterly profit in two years and revealing it received an offer for its enterprise business.

Airline, oil service, retail, and banking stocks also saw notable strength amid broad based buying interest on Wall Street.

The major averages remained firmly positive going into the close, ending the session near their best levels of the day. The Dow soared 188.30 points or 1.2 percent to 15,628.53, the Nasdaq jumped 45.56 points or 1.1 percent to 4,057.12 and the S&P 500 shot up 21.79 points or 1.2 percent to 1,773.43.