Thursday’s trading session maintained the pattern of volatility in the markets as it ended significantly positive. This comes after three tough days of repeated losses on Wall Street. The Dow gained 6.67% on the day coming to a close of 8835 points. The S&P had an even stronger showing, rising 6.92% and closed at 911 points. The Nasdaq went up 6.50%, and finished with 1596 points. It seemed as if Bulls had seen enough value lost in the market and decided to begin buying again, after three days of red on Wall Street.

Markets reacted with losses earlier in the day after the Labor Department reported jobless claims to be at their seven year high as of last week to 516,000, a number slightly under the 2001 report of 517,000 claims shortly after terrorist attacks of 9/11. Even after the news, markets were able to turn around later in the session.

In corporate news, Wal-Mart (WM: 0.1604, 0.00 (0.00%)) was able to beat analyst estimates of $.76 with $.80 earnings per share. Total earnings were $3.14 billion, and total sales were $98.64 which were both better than last years third quarter numbers. Wal-Mart seems to have found customers who are ditching more expensive alternatives and buying only the necessities. Looking into the future WM predicts a stronger dollar will hurt international sales, slowing overall growth modestly.

The rate of foreclosed homes in the US rose by 25% after a report was released by Realty Trac Inc. on Thursday. The report was for the month of October, and showed that 279,400 homes had received a notice of foreclosure.

Amid the buying of Thursday, Investors of hedge fund Fortress Investment Group (FIG: 3.24, 0.00 (0.00%)) were asked to pull out a total of $4.5 billion in the near future due to reporting major losses during the last quarter.

Shares of Exxon Mobil (XOM: 75.41, +6.48 (+9.40%)) and Chevron (CVX: 75.71, +8.43 (+12.53%)) made strong gains today, rising up 10.5% and 12.4% respectively. The price of oil may have had something to do with it, as it too ventured north. Crude closed the day at $59.46, after falling to its lowest level in 21 months the day before.

-Hassan Chaudhry

Disclosure: The mutual fund the author is associated with holds long positions with XOM