Dow And S&P 500 Jump To New Record Closing Highs

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Thursday, extending the upward trend seen in recent weeks. The markets benefited from a positive reaction to comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

While most of the major sectors showed notable moves to the upside, gold stocks posted particularly strong gains on the day. Reflecting the strength in the gold sector, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index surged up by 7.9 percent.

The rally by gold stocks came amid a sharp increase by the price of the precious metal, with gold for August delivery jumping $32.50 to $1,279.90 an ounce.

Substantial strength was also visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 4.9 percent gain posted by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. D.R. Horton (DHI) and Lennar (LEN) turned in two of the housing sector's best performances.

Steel stocks also saw considerable strength on the day, with the NYSE Arca Steel Index rising by 4 percent. Mechel (MTL) helped to lead the sector higher, surging up by 9.8 percent.

Biotechnology, networking, commercial real estate, and software stocks also posted strong gains, reflecting the broad based buying interest on Wall Street.

The major averages continued to perform well in late trading, closing near their best levels of the day. The Dow jumped 169.26 points or 1.1 percent to 15,460.92, the Nasdaq soared 57.55 points or 1.6 percent to 3,578.30 and the S&P 500 surged up 22.40 points or 1.4 percent to 1,675.02.

With the gains on the day, the Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs, while the Nasdaq hit its best closing level since September of 2000.