There was a delayed reaction on Thursday to the upbeat news on U.S. jobless claims and an announcement of some form of coordinated action on the European debt crisis. But when markets finally found a direction, they sent commodity stocks and the Canadian dollar on a tear.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 10,144.19, up 105.81 points, or 1.1 per cent. The broader S&P 500 closed at 1078.47, up 10.34 points, or 1 per cent.
In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index closed at 11,435.49, up 149.16 points, or 1.3 per cent.
In both markets, commodity producers enjoyed the biggest gains, following commodity prices higher as investors bet that the on-again, off-again global economic recovery was back on.
Crude oil rose to $75.28 (U.S.) a barrel, lifted in part by a new forecast from the International Energy Agency for rising oil demand this year. Gold rose to $1095 an ounce, up $13. And the Canadian dollar surged to 75.3 cents against the U.S. dollar, up 1.2 cents - the biggest one-day gain since November.
In Canada, materials stocks rose 3.5 per cent, with Teck Resources Ltd. rising 6.1 per cent and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. rising 4.2 per cent. Among energy producers, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose 2 per cent.
However, financials lagged, with overall gains of just 0.6 per cent - weighed down by a negative reaction to the latest quarterly earnings from Manulife Financial Corp. and Sun Life Financial Inc., both of which missed expectations. The stocks fell 1.7 per cent and 3.1 per cent, respectively.