NEW YORK — The stock market resumed its rally Thursday after getting encouraging readings on two of the best gauges of the economy’s health: consumer spending and corporate profits.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61 points after falling modestly the day before. The gains added to the market’s already steep climb for the week. Improving signals about the economy pushed the Dow up 244 points Monday and Tuesday, its best back- to-back advance since July.
Traders pounced on news that retailers last month had their first sales gains in more than a year. A closely watched gauge of sales at major retailers rose 0.1 percent for September. While still tepid, it was the first monthly rise in the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs tally since July 2008.
The growing hopes for consumer spending followed late Wednesday’s good news from Alcoa Inc. The company surprised investors with its first profit in nine months, which the aluminum company attributed to cost-cutting and rising sales to automakers.
Its report and upbeat forecast for aluminum demand had many traders betting that companies’ results for the July-September quarter will be better than expected.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that new claims for jobless benefits fell to 521,000 last week from 554,000 the previous week. Claims came to the lowest level since early January.
The Dow rose 61.29, or 0.6 percent, to 9,786.87. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 7.90, or 0.8 percent, to 1,065.48, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 13.60, or 0.6 percent, to 2,123.93.
