Commodity producers continued to lead the way as North American stock market indexes kicked off the second quarter with strong gains on Thursday.
At noon, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 74 points or 0.7 per cent, to 10,931. The broader S&P 500 was up 9 points or 0.8 per cent, to 1179.
Initial jobless claims for last week fell slightly, bolstering confidence that the official payrolls report due to be released on Friday morning will show gains. As well, investors were buoyed by a better-than-expected reading on U.S. manufacturing activity, with the ISM index rising to 59.6 in March - its highest level since 2004.
Commodity prices rose, which sent the share prices of commodity producers out in front of the rally. U.S. materials stocks jumped 1.9 per cent and energy stocks weren't far behind, with gains of 1.6 per cent.
In other moves, utilities rose 1.5 per cent, telecom services rose 1.2 per cent and financials rose 1 per cent.
No subindex fell, implying a widespread rally. However, consumer staples, information technology stocks and health care stocks lagged the benchmark index's gains, rising just 0.5 per cent each.
In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 80 points or 0.7 per cent, to 12,118.
Commodity producers were the big story here, too, after the price of crude oil approached $85 (U.S.) a barrel and gold moved above $1125 an ounce as the U.S. dollar fell. Energy stocks rose 2.3 per cent while materials rose 1.3 per cent.
However, the gains here weren't nearly as widespread as the U.S. market's gains. Financials slipped 0.1 per cent and information technology stocks - dominated by Research In Motion Ltd., which released disappointing quarterly results after the market closed on Wednesday - fell 4.9 per cent.