Dow surges 500 points on strong earnings

Wall Street’s main indexes rallied on Thursday, boosted by technology stocks and strong quarterly results from Bank of America and Walgreens, while better-than-expected economic data eased some concerns about higher inflation.

At 12:08 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 499.56 points, or 1.45%, at 34,877.37, the S&P 500 was up 67.63 points, or 1.55%, at 4,431.43, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 237.63 points, or 1.63%, at 14,809.26.

Citigroup, Bank of America Corp and Morgan Stanley topped quarterly earnings estimates, helped by release of more reserves to cover loan losses.

Several shares gained between 0.1% and 3.3%. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc jumped 5.9% to top the S&P 500 and the Dow, after the drugstore chain reported fourth-quarter revenue and adjusted profit above estimates and forecast growth of 11% to 13% in the long term.

The market strength today is partly predicated on better than expected earnings. All of the 11 major S&P sectors advanced, with nine of them gaining more than 1%. The small cap Russell 2000 index added 1.3%.