(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) U.S. stocks surged sharply higher Thursday rallying for the second straight session as oil prices steadied and a voting member of the Fed made dovish comments.
At the closing bell in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average settled up 323 points at 17908 adding to a 231 point gain yesterday and erasing 2015 losses.
The Nasdaq climbed 86 points to end at 4736 and the S&P 500 gained 36 points to settle at 2062.
U.S. stocks also rallied on Wednesday halting a five session losing streak for the S&P 500 as oil prices rebounded. The S&P 500 is now up nearly 0.2% in 2015 while the Dow is up almost 0.5% year-to-date.
Late yesterday Chicago Fed President Charles Evans a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee this year said the US might not hit the central bank's targeted inflation rate until 2018 and therefore doesn't advise a rate hike until 2016. He spoke at an event sponsored by the University of Chicago.
U.S. crude in New York which gained 1.5% on Wednesday continued to rise today finishing up 0.3% at $48.79 a barrel. Gold for February delivery slipped 0.2% to finish at $1208.50 an ounce after snapping a three session rally yesterday.
On the economic calendar today U.S. jobless claims for the week that ended January 2 fell by 4000 to 294000 below the key 300000 mark for the 16th time in 17 weeks. Economists were expecting claims to drop to 290000 from 298000 the previous week. The data come ahead of the all-important monthly jobs report tomorrow.
Investors also took in consumer credit figures for November this afternoon which showed the slowest pace of growth in a year. The reported that consumer credit grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.2% in November for a gain of $14.1 billion to $3.3 trillion. Consensus forecasts were calling for a $15 billion increase.
Meanwhile European stocks closed up substantially today with shares in France leading the region after weaker than expected German factory orders data further boosted hopes for additional stimulus by the European Central Bank. Japan's Nikkei settled up 1.67% on Thursday the biggest gain in three weeks as oil prices continued to firm up.
In corporate news Family Dollar () shares fell 0.5% after its quarterly profit dropped due to costs tied to a strategy change. The results came in below analysts' expectations.
(NYSE:STZ) rose more than 4% after raising its outlook as sales and profit climbed in its most recent quarter to top forecasts driven by growth in its beer business.
(NASDAQ:COST) shares gained 0.9% after it reported a 3% increase in same store sales for December above expectations. U.S. sales alone were 5% higher.
PVH Corp () said it is planning to close its Izod retail division by the end of fiscal 2015 though it expects the move will not impact its Izod wholesale business.
Coca-Cola Co. () climbed 1.2% after saying Thursday it will eliminate at least 1600 to 1800 jobs globally as part of its earlier announced $3 billion cost-cutting plans.
's () share of the U.S. search market excluding mobile devices has dropped to 75.3% last month from 77.5% in November while Yahoo's share jumped to 10% from 8% according to analytics firm StatCounter. This is due to a deal in November where Yahoo replaced as the default search engine on Firefox browsers in the U.S. The company could be facing even larger losses as the Wall Street Journal reports () is considering dropping as the default search engine on its Safari browser.
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