Market Watch 10/08/2009

Today is Thursday. It is sunny in here.

U.S. stocks rose Thursday as Alcoa kicked off the earnings season on a positive note, while Macy's, Home Depot and other discretionary stocks climbed on retailers' first collective same-store sales gain since August 2008.

Still, the market's major indexes didn't end as high as they had been earlier in the session, as the excitement over the earnings and sales reports - as well as a bigger-than-expected drop in weekly jobless claims - seemed to wear off a bit by the end of the day.

The analysis said the market was clearly looking for an excuse to go up, and the Alcoa numbers were definitely a good excuse to rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 61.29 points, or 0.63%, at 9786.87. Home Depot was one of its biggest gainers, closing up 75 cents, or 2.9%, to 26.89. Alcoa also closed higher, up 15 cents, or 1.1%, at 14.35, after it posted a surprising third-quarter profit late Wednesday, following three quarterly losses in a row.

The Nasdaq Composite climbed 13.6, or 0.64%, to 2123.93. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 7.91, or 0.75%, to 1065.48.

Its materials and energy sectors saw the biggest gains as commodities prices rose.