Home sales, jobs data lift stocks

Better news on home sales and improved prospects for job growth sent stocks higher on Wall Street Thursday.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 135 points, nearly making up its 140-point loss from the day before. The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged back into the black for 2011, with just one more day of trading left.

The four-week average of unemployment claims fell to a 3 1/2 year low, while the number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes in November rose more than 7 percent to the highest level in a year and a half, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Quincy Krosby, Prudential Financial's market strategist, said the reports were encouraging signals for the economy going into 2012.

"The correlation between jobs and housing has been crystal-clear this year," Krosby said. "Parts of the country where jobs are more plentiful are the ones where the housing market has held up."

The Dow closed at 12,287.04, a gain of 135.63 points, or 1.12 percent. For the year, the Dow is up 709 points, or 6 percent.

The S&P 500 rose 13.38 points, or 1.07 percent, to 1,263.02. That's just 5 points above where the index started the year.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 23.76 points, or 0.92 percent, to 2,613.74. The index is down 39 points for the year.