Jobs report, hope for Italy, help stocks end higher

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Hopeful signs in both U.S. employment and Europe?s debt crisis helped stocks end up Thursday, a day after a massive drop.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 113.07 or? 0.96 percent, to 11,894.01. The S&P 500 rose 10.59, or 0.86 percent, to 1,239.69. The Nasdaq ended 3.50 higher, or 0.13 percent, to 2,625.15.

The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment benefits dropped 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 390,000 versus a revised 400,000 the prior week. Analysts had been expecting claims of?about 400,000, Reuters said.

Italy sold $6.8 billion worth of debt at rates that were more favorable than analysts expected. Italy's benchmark borrowing rate dropped below 7 percent after spiking above that level the day before. Investors were also relieved by talk that the economist Mario Monti is likely to replace Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who was seen as an obstacle to meaningful economic reforms. Italy's president pledged that Berlusconi will step down soon.

Worries about what Italy?s debt issues could mean for the global economy helped send stocks plunging Wednesday. The Dow ended down 389.24 points.

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, called the drop in unemployment claims and the news from Europe encouraging. "It's got the markets on the cheerful side," he told the Associated Press.

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Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/10/8740535-jobs-report-hope-for-italy-help-stocks-end-higher

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