Stocks rise as buying increases

First Posted:

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Stocks rose Thursday after mostly falling for three days as traders scooped up beaten-down financial and technology stocks. The buying was subdued after a worse-than-expected weekly unemployment report added to concerns that the economic recovery might not come as quickly as hoped.
The market is down sharply this week as investors worry that the optimism that fed a massive spring rally might have been premature. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is still 32 percent above the 12-year low it hit in early March.
Technology shares gained after software maker CA Inc. said Wednesday that its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose as cost-cutting stayed ahead of a drop in revenue.
The advance came as the market grappled unemployment. The Labor Department’s weekly data showed more workers filing for unemployment benefits. New claims jumped to 637,000, above what economists had forecast. The overall number of people seeking unemployment benefits grew faster than expected.