A "Day Of Clarity" On Wall Street

Good news on the economy and lower oil prices gave Wall Street a boost on Thursday.

The Commerce Department reported that the gross domestic product from January through March rose 4.4%, rather than the previously reported 4.2% annual rate. The Labor Department also reported that jobless claims fell slightly. In addition, the price for crude oil fell $1.26 a barrel on hopes that OPEC will increase its production next month.

That was good news for stocks. Our InformationWeek 100 rose 2.38, or 0.8%, to 318.39. The Nasdaq rose 8.35, or 0.4%, to close at 1,984.50. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock rose 23 cents, or 0.6%, to close at $36.42.

Less tech-heavy indexes also had a good day. The Dow Jones industrials rose 95.31, or 0.9%, to 10,205.20. And the S&P 500 rose 6.34, or 0.6%, to 1,121.28.

John Lynch, chief market analyst at Evergreen Investments, told The Associated Press that Thursday was "a day of clarity" for investors. He said investors have finally begun to focus on the strong economic fundamentals such as consumer buying and business spending and that jitters over rising oil prices and interest rates are already factored into the market. Said Lynch, "The perception of bad stuff has been priced in."