Major Averages Close Just Off Their Best Levels Of The Day

(RTTNews) - After trending lower over the past several sessions, stocks saw substantial strength during trading on Thursday. The gains on the day came after the major averages ended the previous session at their worst closing levels in a month.

Following news of buybacks and dividend increases, financial stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day.

Reflecting the strength in the financial sector, the Dow Jones Banks Index and the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index jumped by 2.4 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.

Considerable strength was also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 2.2 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. With the gain, the index climbed further off the nearly three-month closing low that it set on Tuesday.

JetBlue (JBLU) helped lead the airline sector higher, with the discount airline surging up by 5.6 percent after forecasting a 3 to 4 percent increase in first quarter unit revenue.

Utilities stocks also showed a substantial move to the upside, regaining some ground after falling sharply over the past few weeks. The Dow Jones Utilities Averages surged up by 2 percent, bouncing off its worst closing level in almost five months.

Retail, commercial real estate, housing, and pharmaceutical stocks also moved notably higher, while oil service stocks bucked the uptrend amid a decrease by the price of crude oil.

The major averages saw further upside going into the close, ending the session near their best levels of the day. The Dow jumped 259.83 points or 1.5 percent to 17,895.22, the Nasdaq climbed 43.35 points or 0.9 percent to 4,893.29 and the S&P 500 surged up 25.71 points or 1.3 percent to 2,065.95.