Wall Street rallies on optimism before jobs data
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rallied on Thursday as oil prices slipped and stronger-than-expected economic data raised expectations of a bullish U.S. employment report for February on Friday.
With oil prices pausing from their recent climb, equity investors refocused on the U.S. economy, which has shown steady improvement in reports this week.
Scott Marcouiller, chief technical market strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis, said the progressively better data "has got hopes up that we are going to see better looking non-farm payrolls numbers" in the Labor Department data.
The market's rally was broad, with all ten of the S&P's sectors in solidly positive territory. The CBOE volatility
index , a measure of expected turbulence, fell nearly 10 percent after spiking sharply higher last week.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 162.34 points, or 1.35 percent, to 12,229.14. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 17.30 points, or 1.32 percent, to 1,325.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 43.71 points, or 1.59 percent, to 2,791.78.
Stocks have shown resilience in the face of economic headwinds. The broad S&P 500 is down only 1.3 percent after falling around 3 percent from since late February due to growing violence in oil-producer Libya.
"It is showing you that there is enough cash on the sidelines that has missed the boat and wants in," said Marcouiller
The Arab League said a peace plan for Libya was under consideration. The plan put forth by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, if successful, could end a major headwind for equities.
Crude prices have spiked in recent weeks on concern the unrest in Libya could lead to supply disruptions, pushing oil prices higher and threatening the economic recovery.
April U.S. crude futures fell 0.8 percent to $101.39 per barrel while Brent crude fell 1.4 percent to $114.67.
Initial jobless claims fell last week to 368,000 -- a 2-1/2 year low -- one day after a robust report on private-sector hiring.
In other economic news, the Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing index rose to 59.7 in February, slightly above forecasts and higher than the January result.
Several top U.S. retailers posted bigger-than-expected sales gains for February. The S&P retail index rose 0.7 percent.
Retailers Saks Inc and Nordstrom Inc beat
forecasts, helped by Valentine's Day sales. Saks shares rose 4.9 percent to $12.30, while Nordstrom gained 1.3 percent to $44.79.
Big Lots Inc shares rose 1.9 percent to $40.63 after it forecast strong 2011 profits.
H.J. Heinz Co rose 0.3 percent to $49.14 after quarterly income topped expectations and news of a deal to buy an 80 percent stake in a Brazilian food maker.
(Editing by Kenneth Barry)