Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is finding itself in the middle of some uncomfortable public relations on Wednesday. Reports that the NSA has forced Verizon to share much of the data around the call use and information of its millions of wireless subscribers would seem to have public watchdogs up in the air. Civil libertarians are certainly not happy any time that they hear about more surveillance or outright spying upon the public. But take a look at Verizon’s shares on Thursday and you will think that maybe Big Brother spy scandals are good for shareholders.

Verizon is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and amazingly enough it is the best performing of all 30 DJIA stocks on Thursday. The DJIA itself has been fighting between being up and down throughout the day ahead of Friday’s key jobs report. So why is Verizon somehow the best performing DJIA stock on the day with a gain of 3.5% to $49.99? It almost doesn’t seem possible as there are only two other DJIA stocks up 2% and there were roughly 15 of the 30 components trading in the red on the day on last look.

Perhaps some of the gain is that Verizon secured an NFL video distribution pact for its smartphone is acting as a buffet. The reality is that if Verizon is already working with the government then it is more likely that the cost of doing so is already a known event. Handing over the metadata on millions of subscribers is no easy task and it certainly would not come without major costs.

Sometimes you just have to wonder what really drives stocks. The reality is that each and every time these rallies happen outside of gap-ups it boils down to the fact that there are simply many more buyers than sellers at that time. Verizon’s prior close was $48.30 and that was the opening price as well. Today’s move was without any serious market maker gap-up trading.

Verizon’s 52-week trading range is $40.51 to $54.31 and the consensus analyst price target is $54.02 based upon Thomson Reuters estimates. If you look at the Stockcharts.com chart below this the biggest day Verizon has seen in some time.

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