Thursday

Stocks surged as the closing bell approached today. They managed to extend the week's solid rally in the face of mixed data on jobs, retail sales and consumer lending. The Labor Department said initial claims for jobless benefits declined by 21,000 in the week ended July 3. This number was much more than the 12,000 drop expected by economists. Although this was encouraging news, we have to keep in mind that these numbers are quite volatile from week to week. Hopefully things will continue to look up as they have these past few days. DJIA +120.71 Nasdaq +15.93 S&P 500 +9.98.