In what was a quite volatile session, US stocks soared on Thursday after bargain hunters snapped up stocks of oil producers and industrials.

US stocks oscillated between gains and losses for most part of the morning session. Major Indexes slipped deep into the red in afternoon trade, with Dow briefly falling below 8,000 and S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite testing their five year lows. However, stocks staged a strong comeback afterwards and finished with solid gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 552.59 points, (+6.67%), to close at 8,835.25. The S&P 500 climbed 58.89 points (+6.92%) to 911.29. The Nasdaq Composite rose 97.49 points (+6.5%) to 1,596.70.

Dow heavyweight Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) surged $4.33 or 12.34% to $39.41.

Shares of raw material producers rose as Crude Oil recovered from its lows. Alcoa (NYSE: AA) climbed $1.03 or 10.13% to $11.20. Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) rose $8.43 or 12.53% to $75.71. Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) surged $6.48 or 9.4% to $75.41.

Retailer Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) rallied $2.43 or 12.27% to $22.23.

Shares of wireless service provider, AT&T Inc.(NYSE: T) added $2.49 or 9.51% to finish at $28.67.Verizon Communications (NYSE VZ) rose $2.18 or 7.53% to $31.14.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(NYSE: WMT) gained $2.31 or 4.39% to $54.93 after the company reported that its third quarter net income rose 9.8% to $3.14 billion, or 80 cents per share from $2.86 billion, or 70 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago. Earnings from continuing operations were 77 cents per share, beating the Wall Street estimates by a penny. Net sales grew 7.5% to $97.6 billion from $90.8 billion in the corresponding quarter of 2007.

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT) advanced 88 cents or 26.2% to $4.24 after the leading commercial finance company announced that it has applied with the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors to become a bank holding company.

Shares of Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) advanced 91 cents or 6.73% to $14.43. The Tech bellwether said late Wednesday that it expects fourth quarter revenue to be $9 billion, "plus or minus $300 million,"  down almost 14% or over $1 billion from the previous estimate in the range of $10.1 billion and $10.9 billion. In a statement the company said its "revenue is being affected by significantly weaker than expected demand in all geographies and market segments."

Among other technology stocks, IBM (NYSE: IBM) was up $4.47 or 5.61% to $84.21. Shares of iPhone maker, Apple Inc. (AAPL) leaped $6.32 or 7.01% to $96.44.

Automaker General Motors (GM) fell 13 cents or 4.22% as investors still remain uncertain about the prospects of a federal bailout of the company.

Shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C) dropped 19 cents or 1.97% to $9.45. The stock hit a 13 year low of $8.27.

Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) tumbled 85 cents or 44.6% to $1.05.