Thursday Closing Bell: Markets Close Higher on Hope for Better Days

October 24, 2013: U.S. markets opened higher Thursday morning and marched upward for most of the day. Today’s report on new claims for unemployment benefits fell from the prior week and flash PMI reports on the Eurozone and the U.S. were weaker than expected. Still, a blizzard of quarterly earnings helped keep the markets buoyant today.

European markets closed higher today, Asian closed mixed, and Latin American closed lower.

Friday’s calendar includes the following scheduled data releases and events (all times Eastern).

• 8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
• 9:55 a.m. – University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters consumer sentiment index
• 10:00 a.m. – Wholesale trade

Here are the closing bell levels for Thursday:

• S&P500 1752.06 (+5.69; +0.33%)
• DJIA 15509.21 (+95.88; +0.62%)
• NASDAQ 3928.96 (+21.89; +0.56%)
• 10YR TNOTE 2.515% (-0.09375)
• Gold $1,350.30 (+16.30; +1.2%)
• WTI Crude oil $97.11 (+0.25; +0.3%)
• Euro/Dollar: 1.3802 (+0.0025; +0.18%)

Big Earnings Movers: AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is down 1.9% at $34.62 on earnings that were good but not great. Symantec Inc. (NASDAQ: SYMC) is down 12.8% at $21.48 on lagging revenues and a weak outlook. Fusion-io Inc. (NYSE: FIO) is down 24.4% at $9.81 on soft results. Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) is up 4% at $26.62 after reporting earnings this morning. Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) is down 10.4% at $9.61 on a weak outlook tied to a failing turnaround plan.

Stocks on the Move: ParkerVision Inc. (NASDAQ: PRKR) is down 59.2% at $2.89 following a smaller-than-hoped-for award in its patent suit against Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM). NQ Mobile Inc. (NYSE: NQ) is down 50.7% at $11.28 following a blistering from analysts at Muddy Waters.

In all, 211 NYSE stocks put up new 52-week highs today, while 9 stocks posted new lows.