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CNBC ON DIGG

Dow Ends Up 1.3%, Led by Travelers, MMM

Published: Thursday, 22 Oct 2009 | 5:35 PM ET

Text Size

By: Cindy Perman
Writer

Stocks rallied Thursday as investors cheered some big-name earnings beats and shrugged off a disappointing jobless report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 131.95, or 1.3 percent, to close at 10,081.31. The S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent and the Nasdaq gained 0.7 percent.

Major U.S. Indexes

.DJIA

.NCOMP

.SPX

Financials led the rally after Travelers [TRV Loading... () ] reported its profit more than quadrupled, handily beating expectations, and raised its full-year forecast. Travelers shares jumped 7.7 percent.

PNC Financial [PNC Loading... () ] rallied 13 percent after the regional bank beat expectations.

FOR INVESTORS

McDonald's [MCD Loading... () ] gained 2 percent after the fast-food giant topped forecasts and said it expects same-store sales to remain positive in October.

AT&T [T Loading... () ] rose 0.6 percent after the telecom beat expectations, helped by the iPhone, but revenue slipped from a year earlier.

Merck [MRK Loading... () ] added 0.6 percent after the drug maker said its net tripled in the quarter, helped by stronger sales and the sale of its animal-health business, which was required for its purchase of Schering-Plough. That acquisition is going to catapult Merck from the No. 8 drugmaker to No. 2.

More upbeat earnings reports after the bell late Wednesday from eBay [EBAY Loading... () ] and Amgen, [AMGN Loading... () ] both of which saw earnings beat Wall Street estimates.

Get the latest Q3 results at CNBC's Earnings Central

After the bell today, we'll get reports from Amazon, American Express, Broadcom and Capital One, among others.

After the Bell

Microsoft shares [MSFT Loading... () ] finished flat as the software giant releases its Windows 7 operating system today and opens its first retail store — in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Analysts said the new operating system may help jump-start corporate spending, but for some computer makers, it may not be until the second half of next year.

An interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

In the day's economic news: An index of leading economic indicators rose 1 percent in September, a two-year high and more than the 0.8-percent expected. And jobless claims rose 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 531,000 last week, more than expected. And the previous week was also revised higher by 6,000.

The U.S. pay czar announced that executives at 7 bailed-out firms would have their pay cut by as much as 90 percent. The companies are: AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup, General Motors, Chrysler, GMAC and Chrysler Financial.

Poll: Is Obama Justified in Cutting Executive Pay?

Other factors are waylaying the stock market's recent advances—ranging from Walmart's [WMT Loading... () ] price cuts to analyst Richard Bove's downgrade of Wells Fargo [WFC Loading... () ] to rising oil prices.