NATIONAL

Wall Street showed signs of life Thursday, closing sharply higher after a drop in existing home sales and sturdy economic growth calmed investors’ inflation jitters and motivated them to buy stocks after two weeks of losses.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 93.73, or 0.84 percent, to 11,211.05. The Dow is 3.8 percent off its six-year closing high of 11,642.65, reached May 10. Broader stock indicators were sharply higher. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 14.31, or 1.14 percent, to 1,272.88, and the Nasdaq composite index jumped 29.07, or 1.34 percent, to 2,198.24.

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J2 Global Communications Inc. rose 9 percent to $28.15. Magnetek Inc. added 8.8 percent to $2.60. Homestore Inc. gained 8 percent to $5.83. OSI Systems Inc. rose 7.6 percent to $20.10. Ixxa added 7.5 percent to $10.68. Impco Technologies Inc. rose 7 percent to $8.80. Napster Inc. gained 6.6 percent to $2.23. True Religion Apparel Inc. rose 6 percent to $16.36. MRV Communications inc. was up 6 percent to $3.23.

Capstone Turbine Corp. fell 7 percent to $3.12. Sports Chalet Inc. lost 6 percent to $7.50. Electronic Clearing House Inc. was down 5 percent to $13.31. Hi-Sher Technology Corp. fell 4.8 percent to $9.95. Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp. was down 4 percent to $20.79.