US close: Stocks rally after ECB announces bond-buy programme

US stocks staged a late rally on Thursday, as investors digested the news that the European Central Bank will commit to a €60bn-a-month bond-buying programme until September 2016.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 259.70 points up at 17,813.98, while the S&P rose 31.03 points to 2,063.15 and the Nasdaq advanced by 1.8%.

ECB president Mario Draghi unveiled plans for a bond-buying programme designed to inject new life into the flagging Eurozone economy. Starting in March, the ECB will buy €60bn worth of private and public securities each month until September 2016.

"US markets were less impressed with the announcement, having been quite blasé about the whole thing for the past two weeks, initially failing to be infected with the same wild optimism seen in Europe," said IG analyst Chris Beauchamp.

"However, having risen by over 2% since last week’s lows, there are signs that Wall Street is taking comfort from earnings season and will drag itself higher thanks to the confluence of company news and the ECB.

"The tremors from the ECB have yet to be fully felt across the Atlantic, but at least the central bank is finally getting its act together, even if it may be too little, too late."

US initial jobless claims fell 10,000 to 307,000 in the week ended 17 January, stabilising above the reading of 300,000 analysts had estimated, while claims for the previous week were revised up to 317,000.

Reflecting the recent volatility, the four-week moving average for initial claims rose from 300,000 to 307,000.

In corporate news, Southwest Airlines rose 8.42% after reported better-than-expected quarterly profits on the back of greater passenger traffic and a hefty drop in fuel costs.

Janus Capital Group soared 12.96% after reporting its fourth quarter profit jumped 22%, while Verizon fell 0.93% after posting earnings excluding one-time items that were in-line with Wall Street’s expectations.

Lands' End plummeted by over 17% after the group offered up a disappointing outlook, while eBay rose almost 7.05% after announcing late on Wednesday that its fourth-quarter results had met expectations.

American Express fell 3.76% after announcing late on Wednesday it will cut 4,000 jobs, even though its fourth-quarter earnings and revenue both rose but added a rise in fourth-quarter expenses and provisions for loans that could spell trouble.

On the back of Draghi’s announcement, the dollar rose over 2.5% against the euro and gained 0.9% and 0.6% against the pound and the yen respectively.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, US crude supplies have reached a 80-year high and the price of West Texas Intermediate fell over 2.5% to just over $46.50 a barrel, while Brent crude fell just under 0.2% and was trading at just under $49 a barrel.

S&P 500 - Risers
Avon Products Inc. (AVP) $8.66 +14.55%
Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) $45.35 +8.42%
Keycorp (KEY) $13.27 +7.62%
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $57.15 +7.05%
Regions Financial Corp. (RF) $9.19 +5.51%
Crown Castle International (CCI) $85.25 +4.78%
Union Pacific Corp. (UNP) $119.84 +4.76%
Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) $48.03 +4.75%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $428.51 +4.70%
Comerica Inc. (CMA) $42.71 +4.68%

S&P 500 - Fallers
F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV) $113.27 -10.07%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $38.96 -6.14%
Discover Financial Services (DFS) $57.32 -5.79%
American Express Co. (AXP) $84.37 -3.76%
Flowserve Corp. (FLS) $56.43 -2.64%
Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) $353.65 -2.26%
AES Corp. (AES) $12.92 -2.12%
Exelon Corp. (EXC) $37.25 -1.95%
Emerson Electric Co. (EMR) $59.81 -1.92%
ONEOK Inc. (OKE) $44.50 -1.92%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $113.85 +4.14%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $57.59 +3.04%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $108.17 +3.01%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $182.04 +2.76%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $47.11 +2.59%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $95.85 +2.50%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $106.07 +2.45%
Boeing Co. (BA) $135.64 +2.44%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $28.50 +2.37%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $155.39 +2.17%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
American Express Co. (AXP) $84.37 -3.76%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $47.80 -0.93%
AT&T Inc. (T) $33.79 -0.62%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $57.15 +7.05%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $428.51 +4.70%
Sba Communications Corp. (SBAC) $116.47 +4.56%
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $310.32 +4.40%
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) $26.68 +4.14%
Dollar Tree Inc (DLTR) $70.25 +3.60%
Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) $79.73 +3.42%
Dish Network Corp. (DISH) $74.27 +3.33%
Google Inc. (GOOGL) $537.30 +3.25%
Google Inc. Class C (GOOG) $534.39 +3.16%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV) $113.27 -10.07%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $38.96 -6.14%
Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) $353.65 -2.26%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $78.90 -1.91%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $105.29 -1.26%
Vimpelcom Ltd Ads (VIP) $3.94 -1.01%
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) $79.99 -0.84%
PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) $64.67 -0.66%
Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) $42.33 -0.66%
Nxp Semiconductors Nv (NXPI) $79.06 -0.30%