Major Averages Close Sharply Higher On ECB Stimulus News

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading session on Thursday, as traders reacted positively to the European Central Bank's highly anticipated decision to implement quantitative easing. The gains on the day extended the upward move seen in the three previous sessions.

While most of the major sectors moved to the upside on the day, airline stocks posted particularly strong gains. The NYSE Arca Airline Index surged up by 3.9 percent to its best closing level in almost thirteen years.

Southwest Airlines (LUV) helped to lead the sector higher, soaring by 8.4 percent after reporting better than expected fourth quarter earnings.

Considerable strength was also visible among banking stocks, as reflected by the 3.7 percent gain posted by the Dow Jones Banks Index. With the gain, the index climbed further off the three-month closing low it set last Thursday.

KeyCorp (KEY) turned in one of the banking sector's best performances, jumping by 7.6 after reporting fourth quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates.

Railroad, computer hardware, brokerage, and trucking stocks also saw significant strength on the day, while gold stocks bucked the uptrend.

The major averages moved roughly sideways going into the close, hovering near their best levels of the day. The Dow surged up 259.70 points or 1.5 percent to 17,813.98, the Nasdaq soared 82.98 points or 1.8 percent to 4,750.40 and the S&P 500 jumped 31.03 points or 1.5 percent to 2,063.15.