Wall Street ended the day solidly in the green as tech stocks soared, crude prices tumbled and traders cheered more wheeling and dealing. 

Today’s Market

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 94.28 points, or 0.73% to 12992.66, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 14.91 points, or 1.06%, to 1423.57 and the Nasdaq Composite Index picked up 37.03 points, or 1.48%, to 2533.73. The consumer-friendly Fox 50 rose 9.75 points, or 0.98%, to 1006.71.

General Motors (GM) helped lead the way higher on the Dow, jumping 5.1% thanks to two separate labor agreements. On the downside, United Technologies (UTX) posted the biggest loss on the index, losing about 1%. 

M&A news helped boost the stock market on Thursday. In addition to talks about a Carl Icahn-led proxy fight at Yahoo! (YHOO), media giant CBS (CBS) revealed a $1.75 billion deal to buy CNET Networks (CNET). Also, retailer J.C. Penney (JCP) made headlines by issuing a bullish forecast and beating expectations in its first-quarter results even as its profit tumbled 50%.

The Nasdaq Composite advanced twice as far as the broader market as tech stocks bounced back from a rough afternoon on Wednesday. Shares of chip maker Intel (INTC) jumped 4.8% higher after Lehman Brothers (LEH) lifted the stock's price target to $26, implying a 9% gain. Lehman cited strong product demand and reiterated an "overweight" rating on Intel. 

The positive note about Intel and other analyst moves helped lift other chip makers, including Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Blue chip tech names like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Microsoft (MSFT) also benefited from the Intel news. 

Research in Motion (RIMM) gained 1.6% after The Wall Street Journal reported the company plans to introduce a touch-screen BlackBerry in the third quarter called the Thunder. The device will reportedly be sold exclusively in the U.S. at Verizon Wireless, which is a joint venture between Verizon (VZ) and Vodafone (VOD). Overseas, the Thunder will be sold by Vodafone. 

While Wall Street was able to close with a solid rally and near the highest levels of the day, the rally lacked conviction. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange barely broke 1 billion shares, almost 500 million shy of an average day's activity. 

Wall Street benefited from an afternoon selloff in crude oil prices, which were under pressure from options contract expiration. After soaring to nearly a record of $127 a barrel Thursday morning, crude prices declined sharply and closed at $124.12 a barrel, down 10 cents on the day. 

The day's headline economic news came way of the Department of Labor, which said Thursday that jobless claims increased by 6,000 to 371,000 last week. That was basically in line with economists expectations. However, the continuing jobless claims, or the people taking unemployment benefits for more than four weeks, rose to a four-year high of 3.06 million people. 

While the results were not shocking to Wall Street, they do still indicate more weakness in the labor market. The weakness has yet to rise to the level that many would expect to see during a recession though. 

Wall Street cheered the latest merger and acquisition news because it had been absent for so long due to the credit crisis. As financing became much more elusive since last summer, mega deals like the one announced earlier this week by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to acquire Electronic Data Systems (EDS) fell off the map. 

The latest deal came way of CBS, which boosted its online presence by acquiring CNET, the owner of such Web sites as News.com, TV.com, MP3.com and Gamespot. The deal is a valued at $11.50 per share, a 45% premium on the stock's closing price on Wednesday. While CNET's stock surged 43.6% to a 52-week high, shares of CBS took a 2.4% hit. 

Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn ended nearly two days of suspense by confirming his plans to nominate a 10 person slate to Yahoo's board of directors. The move is an effort to draw software titan Microsoft (MSFT) back into negotiations after talks broke down earlier this month. Icahn was highly critical of Yahoo's board, saying he was "perplexed" by the company's actions because the $33 per share offer from Microsoft is the "superior" option. 

Icahn, who bought 59 million shares of Yahoo in the past 10 days, nominated himself, billionaire Mark Cuban and Frank Biondi, Jr., former Viacom (VIA) CEO, to his slate of directors. However, Icahn hasn't yet received a response from Microsoft on his proxy battle, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Corporate Movers

General Motors (GM) and the Canadian Auto Workers union agreed to a tentative deal on Thursday morning that has to be voted on by members. Also, GM and a United Auto Workers union in Michigan reached a deal that will cover 3,300 workers at a plant near Dearborn.

General Electric (GE) is planning on selling its iconic appliance division, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Rival Whirlpool (WHR) slid 1% Thursday to a four-week high. Executives at GM have recently come under pressure after the company's first-quarter earnings widely missed estimates for the first time in six years, sending its stock to its largest one-day plunge in two decades. According to the Journal, the sale of GE’s appliance business could bring as much as $5 billion.

J.C. Penney (JCP) posted a first-quarter profit of 54 cents per share, topping estimates of 50 cents from Thomson Reuters. More importantly, the retailer sees its second-quarter earnings coming in above mean analyst estimates even as the economy slows and consumer sentiment tumbles. Shares of J.C. Penney gained 4.7%.

Blackstone Group (BX) picked up 5.3% even after the private equity giant widely missed estimates in the first quarter. The company, which has only been publicly traded for about a year, said excluding one-time items it lost 7 cents per share, compared to estimates of a profit of 13 cents. Blackstone's revenue plunged 94% to $68.5 million as credit markets dried up. 

Blockbuster (BBI) fell 0.6% even though its first-quarter profit of 20 cents per share beat the Street. Earlier in the day the stock had been more than 11% higher. The movie rental retailer had been expected to earn 15 cents per share, which would have been a smaller improvement over the company's year-ago loss of 27 cents per share. Blockbuster is looking into acquiring electronics retailer Circuit City (CC), a potential move that hasn't helped Blockbuster's share price.  

Tiffany (TIF) gained 6.6% after the jewelry retailer boosted its quarterly dividend by 13% and forecasted first-quarter earnings that would meet Wall Street's expectations. Tiffany said it sees earnings of 39 cents per share, in line with estimates from Thomson Reuters. The retailer is scheduled to report earnings on May 30. 

Data Dump

A manufacturing survey from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve declined by less than expected in May. The index slid to -15.6 from -24.9 in April. Estimates called for a -20.0 reading.

Conversely, the New York Fed's manufacturing index deteriorated further than expected in May. The index declined to -3.23, compared to 0.63 in April but still well above the record low of -22.23 in April. 

In a separate economic report, the government said industrial production in the U.S. took a larger-than-expected hit of 0.7%, showing the economic pressure on the manufacturing sector. 

World Markets

The Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 Index, a gauge of the 50 biggest companies in Europe, fell 2.60 points, or 0.07%, to 3854.86. The FTSE 100, London's benchmark index, gained 35.80 points, or 0.58%, to 6251.80. 

On the continent, Paris's CAC 40 Index rose 2.27 points, or 0.04%, to 5057.51 while Germany's DAX fell 2.19 points, or 0.03%, to 7081.05. 

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 Index gained 133.19 points to 14251.74. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 19.77 points to 25513.71.