US stocks rose overnight as solid corporate profit reports and a drop in the number of Americans claiming jobless benefits gave investors something to cheer about.
The market's rally pushed the benchmark S&P 500 index to its highest intraday level in nine months, while the NASDAQ briefly rose above 2,000 for the first time since October.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 84 points to 9,154. The S&P500 Index rose 12 to 987 and the NASDAQ added 17 points to 1,984.
In economic news: according to a Labor Department report, the number of American’s continuing to receive unemployment benefits slipped to 6.2 million last week, from 6.25 million the week before. That’s the lowest level since mid-April and was short of forecasts.
Meanwhile, the weekly jobless claims report showed unemployment rose to 584,000, which largely reflected plant shutdowns at automakers. In company news: Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) shares fell 0.99% to $70.72. The oil behemoth reported a steep drop in second-quarter income due to weaker demand and falling oil and gas prices.
Travelers (NYSE:TRV) shares lost 1.62% to $41.94 as the financial company reported weaker profit that missed forecasts. But Travelers also boosted its full-year earnings forecast.
Motorola (NYSE:MOT) shares gained 9.44% to $7.19. The telecom company posted higher quarterly earnings that topped forecasts on weaker revenue that fell short of expectations.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) shares rose 6.93% to $13.11. Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral" after legislators appeared to back down on the question of whether GE should separate itself from its troubled finance unit GE Capital.
Checking the NASDAQ Top 100: Making the most gains was Wynn Resorts, which added 13.18% to $50.15. While Expedia and Dentsply International also climbed higher. The worst performing stock was Akamai Technologies, which fell 19.07% to $16.51. Symantec and Lam Research also lost ground.
