Just when it looked like the bulls had ran out of ammo, the Dow rose to new 2009 highs amid excitement for the latest wave of mostly upbeat earnings reports and more confidence about the U.S. economy. 

Today's Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 83.74 points, or 0.92%, to 9154.46, the Standard & Poor's 500 added 11.60 points, or 1.19%, to 986.75 and the Nasdaq Composite picked up 16.54 points, or 0.84%, to 1984.30. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 climbed 6.92 points, or 0.97%, to 723.84.

While the markets ended solidly in the green, a late-day slide limited the gains as the Dow had been 175 points in the green earlier. 

Snapping a rare two-day losing steak, Wall Street rallied around a series of bullish headlines Thursday, including a steep drop in continuing jobless claims, better-than-expected quarterly results from companies like MasterCard (V) and Kellogg (K), a bullish call on General Electric (GE) and a $3.59 rebound in the price of crude oil. 

At the same time, the markets breathed a sigh of relief after the Treasury capped off its record week of bond auctions with a solid sale. 

The continued strength on Wall Street is “a real vote of confidence for our turnaround and a global turnaround -- with an exclamation mark,” said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital Markets. “This earnings season has been remarkably ebullient. It’s hard to sell into that.”

Thursday's rally briefly pushed the Nasdaq Composite over the psychologically-important 2000 level and nearly nudged the broader S&P 500 above the 1000 threshold. At the same time, the Dow is in striking distance of posting its best July since 1937, when it climbed 9.6%. 

“Barring some geopolitical hiccup, which obviously we can’t foretell at this point, we only have one direction and that’s going up,” NSYE trader Jason Weisberg of Seaport Securities told FOX Business. “All the people sitting on the sidelines with cash are having to play a wicked game of catch-up because they are all waiting for the market to come in. It’s not coming in.”

The rally on Wall Street comes after the Dow ended each of the last two sessions with slight losses, its first two-day slide since June 24. The index lost just 37 points over that span as the bulls continue to resist a slew of negative headlines. 

“From Friday to yesterday we really didn’t go down that much. I think it’s a combination of longs remaining convinced and shorts not getting rewarded. Whether it continues past the end of the month, we’ll see,” said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities.

GE and DuPont (DD) were the biggest percentage gainers on the Dow. Just two of the index's 30 components fell by more than 1%: McDonald's (MCD) and Traveler's (TRV), which posted weaker-than-expected results. 

Wall Street's hopes for an economic recovery were strengthened Thursday as the government said initial jobless claims rose last week by 25,000 to 584,000, beating economists' forecast for a rise of 34,000. At the same time, the Labor Department said continuing claims, which are filed by those out of work for more than one week, fell by 54,000 to 6.2 million. 

The markets also received a series of mostly better-than-expected earnings reports from companies like Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Cigna (CI) and Hartford Financial (HIG). But the earnings news wasn't all positive as Dow components ExxonMobil (XOM) and Travelers (TRV) missed the Street's view, making them the exception to a recent trend of upbeat results from bellwethers. 

Traders also cheered the government's auction of $28 billion worth of seven-year notes, which saw solid demand and the best foreign participation this week. The auction should help ease worries sparked a day ago by a sale about the government’s ability to finance its growing deficit.

A day after suffering its worst selloff since April, crude oil posted its best rally since April. Lifted by the optimism on Wall Street, crude soared $3.59 a barrel, or 5.67%, to $66.94. The rebound sent energy stocks like XTO Energy (XTO) and Hess (HES) sharply higher. 

Corporate Movers

General Electric (GE) soared after Goldman Sachs upgraded the conglomerate to “buy” from “neutral.” The bank cited comments from Rep. Barney Frank, who told Bloomberg he doesn’t think GE should have to spinoff GE Capital. Goldman upped its price target on the parent of NBC to $15 a share, up from $13.

ExxonMobil (XOM) disappointed the Street by posting a 66% slide in net income and an adjusted-profit of 84 cents per share. Analysts had been expecting $1.02 per share from the world’s largest publicly traded oil company.

Traveler's (TRV) disclosed a 20% decline in net income and weaker-than-expected operating income of $1.25 per share. However, the former subsidiary of Citigroup (C) raised its full-year outlook to $4.80 to $5.05 a share.

MasterCard (MA) said it swung to a second-quarter profit of $2.67 a share, solidly beating the Street. The second-largest credit card network said its revenue rose 2.7% to $1.28 billion.

Colgate-Palmolive (CL) beat the Street as its net income jumped 14% on prior charges. The maker of toothpaste and dish soap earned $1.07 per share, 2 cents better than estimates. Colgate said it is comfortable with the Street’s estimates for the current quarter and full year.

Kellogg (K), the maker of Frosted Flakes, earned 92 cents per share even as revenue slid 3% to $3.2 billion. Analysts had been expecting a profit of 83 cents per share on stronger revenue of $3.27 billion. Looking ahead, Kellogg raised its full-year EPS guidance to a range of 8% to 10%.

Dow Chemical (DOW) swung to a second-quarter loss on one-time charges and its revenue tumbled by a worse-than-expected 31%. Excluding charges related to its acquisition of Rohm & Haas, Dow earned 5 cents per share. Dow’s revenue fell to $11.3 billion, well shy of estimates for $13.02 billion.

Cablevision’s (CVC) board signed off on the cable company’s plans to spin off its Madison Square Garden unit, which includes the namesake arena, the New York Knicks and Rangers and Radio City Music Hall. Cablevision also posted an in-line quarterly profit of 29 cents per share as its revenue jumped 10% to $1.88 billion.

Southwest Airlines (LUV), the nation’s largest air carrier by passenger volume, said it is preparing to bid to purchase bankrupt Frontier Airlines for a minimum bid of $113.6 million, $7 million more than a bid from Republic Airways (RJET).

Cigna (CI) easily topped estimates with an adjusted-profit of $1.14 a share. However, the medical insurance and annuity company said its revenue decreased 8.2% to $4.5 billion as membership fell amid rising unemployment.

Hartford Financial (HIG) soared almost 14% after the property and life insurer beat the Street and improved its guidance. Hartford’s core earnings of $1.90 per share was well ahead of analysts’ view of $1.16 a share. Looking ahead, the insurer narrowed its 2009 core earnings outlook to a range of zero and 20 cents a share.

Expedia (EXPE) surged more than 11% to 52-week highs after the largest U.S. travel site topped estimates with an adjusted-profit of 38 cents a share. The company’s net income plunged 57% amid foreign exchange losses but its revenue tumbled 3% to a better-than-expected $769.8 million.

Motorola (MOT) eked out a profit in the second quarter thanks to one-time gains and sold a better-than-expected 14.8 million handsets, sending its shares jumping 11%. However, the cell phone maker’s revenue slid by a worse-than-expected 32% to $5.5 billion. 

Waste Management (WMI) disclosed a 22% drop in net income and a weaker-than-expected adjusted-profit of 52 cents per share amid lower volume and higher commodity prices. The nation’s largest garbage hauler also issued disappointing full-year profit guidance and said it is changing its ticker symbol to “WM” on Aug. 5.

Akamai Technologies (AKAM) lost one-fifth of its market cap a day after the Internet content delivery company said it earned 40 cents per share excluding one-time items, at the low end of its own forecast. Akamai also said its revenue rose by a weaker-than-expected 5%. The company also issued disappointing guidance for the current quarter. 

International Paper (IP) predicted the “worst is behind us” and issued an adjusted-profit of 20 cents per share, well ahead of the Street’s view. The company’s net income tumbled 40% to 43 cents per share even as its sales were flat at $5.8 billion.

Global Markets

Rallying for the 13th day of the past 14, London's FTSE 100 gained 1.85% to 4631.61. France's CAC 40 rose 2.08% to 3435.49 and Germany's DAX rallied 1.71% to 5360.66. 

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 climbed 0.51% to 10165.21, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.49% to 20234.08 and China's Shanghai Composite rebounded from Wednesday's plunge by jumping 1.69% to 3321.56.