Associated Press Dow hits 6-week high on relief over earnings

NEW YORK (AP) -- This time, it was the consumer who had Wall Street rallying.
Better-than-expected earnings from big consumer brands Best Buy, ConAgra Foods Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. sent the Dow Jones industrial average up 174 points Thursday to its highest level in six weeks. It has surged 21 percent since hitting a nearly 12-year low on March 9. And the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index is now up 0.63 percent for 2009.

Strong demand for government debt at the Treasury Department's latest auction also lifted stocks by helping investors set aside recent nervousness about the government's ability to fund its economic stimulus and financial bailout programs.

Nearly every day over the past three weeks has seemed to bring morsels of good news -- first from the stricken banking sector and then in the form of stronger-than-expected economic data. But Thursday, solid reports from companies selling to the consumer came as a relief to investors anxious about first-quarter earnings, which start pouring in next month.

The advance technically put the Dow in bull market territory; a bull market is defined as a 20 percent rise from a low point. But analysts are still hesitant to call the end of the bear market -- there is a phenomenon known as a bear market rally that can quickly collapse in an uncertain economic environment. more...