Sam Collins

S&P Close to Breakout Level

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Despite some mixed earnings reports and a sluggish financial sector, stocks made a late surge yesterday and chalked up gains for the fourth-straight session.

The late run was attributed to a comment made by NYU economics professor Nouriel Roubini, who said that the recession is in its late stages. The comments from Dr. Roubini, known as "Dr. Doom," may have sparked the late rally. But, following the close, the doctor reclaimed his title by saying that his comments were simply consistent with his earlier forecast, according to the Wall Street Journal.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) was under pressure for most of the session following better-than-expected earnings, and closed lower by 0.36%.

Nokia (NOK) met earnings forecasts but is losing market share, and the stock fell 14.6%. But IBM (IBM) and Google (GOOG) had gains in anticipation of earnings reported after the close. Both exceeded analysts' forecasts.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended July 11 came in at 522,000, which is the lowest since January. And continuing claims fell from a record 6.9 million to less than 6.3 million, which is the lowest since April.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was up 96 points to 8,712, the S&P 500 (SPX) gained 8 points to 941, and the Nasdaq (NASD) rose to 1,885, up 22 points.

The NYSE traded 1.18 billion shares with advancers ahead by more than 2-to-1, and the Nasdaq traded 701 million shares with advancers ahead by about 5-to-3.