NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Technology gains paced a stock market bounce early Thursday, with the sector continuing to lead the recovery for a second session following a more than two-week period of consolidation.
The morning strong economic reports and upbeat corporate news provided underpinning for the market's strength.
After 10 minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average (up 59.78 to 10108.01, Charts) and the Standard & Poor's 500 (up 7.10 to 1098.43, Charts) index both gained around 0.6 percent, while the Nasdaq composite (up 20.82 to 1930.30, Charts) gained more than 1 percent. The gains were broad-based, with 28 out of 30 Dow components gaining.
Wall Street also appeared to have put aside its anxiety over the possibility of a rise in global terror, which had weighed on the market since the Madrid bomb attacks two weeks ago. News that the FBI has warned U.S. oil refineries in Texas over the possibility of attacks caused no immediate reaction in the market.
Also supporting sentiment in the morning was news that cosmetics retailer Avon Products (AVP: up $4.30 to $74.87, Research, Estimates) raised its first-quarter and full-year earnings per share forecast, citing strong sales in particular in Europe and Latin America.
The economic news was largely in line with expectations.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment last week rose to 339,000 from an upwardly revised 338,000 the previous week. The final reading on fourth-quarter GDP showed it grew 4.1 percent, unchanged from the earlier read and down from the exceptionally strong read of 8.2 percent in the third quarter.
After the start of trading, the monthly report on existing home sales is due. Sales are forecast to have risen to a 6.12 million unit rate in February from a 6.04 million unit rate in January.
Treasury prices fell, pushing the 10-year note yield up to 3.74 percent from 3.71 percent late Wednesday. The dollar was mixed versus the yen and euro.
Among commodities markets, Brent crude oil futures fell 61 cents to $32.40 a barrel in London. COMEX gold lost $1 to $416.40 an ounce.
Asian markets closed mostly higher. European markets rose at midday there.
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