Stocks Resume Strength, Rise To Year's Best Levels

After a few days of selling pressure, investors have returned to their recent jubilant mood sending stocks to the highest levels of the year.

At 12:30PM ET the Dow was up 140, the Nasdaq was up 24 and the S&P 500 was up 16. Trading at 992, the S&P 500 is creeping ever-closer to the key 1000 psychological level.

General Electric (NYSE: GE) is leading the Dow 30 higher, rising 7% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy and raised their price target to $15 saying comments from Barney Frank suggests regulatory reform wouldn't mandate the separation of GE Capital.

Material stocks are also higher, with Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) rising 8% on better-than-expected earnings results.

Today's job data reaffirmed recent signs that job cuts are slowing. Initial Jobless claims last week rose 25,000 to 584,000 which was below the the 600,000 level we've seen last month. Total unemployment claims declined for the third straight week to 6.197 million.

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