Stocks rallied Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S & P; 500 ending higher for the fourth consecutive session, as the prospect of a good earnings season and lower fuel prices brightened investors’ moods.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 60.30, or 0.6 percent, at 10,546.32. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 7.07, or 0.6 percent, to 1,191.14. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 19.65, or 1 percent, to 2,018.79.
Oil prices slid $1.74 to $54.11 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, following the lead of gasoline futures. The sell-off came as the U.S. Energy Department on Thursday predicted that gasoline prices would peak at about $2.35 a gallon nationwide this summer.
U.S. retailers reported mixed sales results in March as unusually cold weather and climbing gas prices outweighed the benefit of an early Easter holiday. Youth-oriented apparel vendors were the big winners as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Limited Brands missed Wall Street forecasts. Higher-end department stores delivered impressive results.
Among local companies, shares of First Consulting Group Inc. gained 11.4 percent to close at $6.18 after the Long Beach-based health care consulting firm reported that it had received a three-year extension of its IT outsourcing agreement with University Hospitals Health System. The contract was originally a five-year, $96 million outsourcing agreement. The contract term is now extended through the second quarter of 2010.
Guess Inc. rose 6.8 percent to $14.80 after the L.A.-based casual apparel company said that same-store sales rose 6.7 percent for the month of March, well above analysts’ expectations for a 2.3 percent increase. Total sales increased 15.2 percent to $49.8 million from $43.2 million last year.
And NetSol Technologies Inc. edged up 6.5 percent to $2.11 after the Calabasas-based automobile industry finance software producer announced that it had been awarded a new software automation project by the National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan. Terms of the deal were not released.
Shares of IMPCO Technologies Inc. sank 4.2 percent to $4.97 after the fuel component manufacturer said that the company is now in compliance with the standards for continued listing on Nasdaq, following yesterday’s filing of its annual report on Form 10-K. IMPCO received a notice on April 6 that said the company was in danger of being delisted due its failure to file its annual report on a timely basis.
