US stocks rallied on Thursday as investors snapped up shares of industrials and financials after G20 leaders agreed on a deal to inject a trillion dollars into the world economy. Shares also got a boost from better than expected economic data and change in accounting rules.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 216.488 points or 2.79% to finish at 7,978.08. The S&P 500 climbed 23.30 points or 2.87% to end at 834.38. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 51.03 points or 3.29% to 1,602.63.

Leaders from the Group of 20 rich and developing countries pledged more than $1 trillion in emergency aid to combat the world's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, The Financial Accounting Standards Board on Thursday relaxed its guidelines for mark-to-market accounting. The new rules will allow companies to value assets at prices based on what they would be sold for in an "orderly" sale as opposed to a distressed sale. However, the new guidelines will kick in for the second quarter and not be reflected in first-quarter results due in the coming weeks.

Equipment maker Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) soared $2.55 or 8.80% to $31.54. Shares of Alcoa (NYSE: AA) surged 58 cents or 7.63% to $8.18.

Energy stocks gained. Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) rose $1.02 or 1.47% to $70.25. Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) climbed $2.01 or 2.94% to $70.31.

General Electric rallied (NYSE: GE) 57 cents or 5.60% to $10.74.General Motors (NYSE: GM) gained 16 cents or 8.29% to end at $2.09.

Among technology stocks, Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) advanced 67 cents or 4.46% to $15.70. IBM (NYSE: IBM) rose $3.21 or 3.29% to $100.82. According to the Wall Street Journal, IBM has cut its intended takeover price for Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) to between $9 and $10 a share.

Financial stocks finished up. Citigroup (NYSE:C) added 6 cents or 2.24% to end at $2.74. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) increased 19 cents or 2.70% to $7.24.  Shares of American Express (NYSE: AXP) rallied 54 cents or 3.74% to $14.98. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) gained $3.93 or 3.56% to $114.22.

Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) said that its fiscal second-quarter net income declined about 3.5% to $1.09 billion, or $1.97 a share, from $1.13 billion, or $2.02 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 8% to $4 billion.

Shares of Rite Aid Corp (NYSE: RAD) surged 6 cents or 15.38% to 45 cents after it reported that fourth quarter net loss widened to $2.29 billion, or $2.67 a share, compared to loss of $952.2 million, or $1.20 a share, in the prior year quarter. Quarterly Revenue slipped 1.7% to $6.7 billion.

Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) rose 89 cents or 3.36% to $27.39 said Thursday that its March sales rose 6.8% to $5.46 billion.

Late on Wednesday, Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) announced that it is selling Morton Salt to K+S, a German fertilizer firm. Shares of Dow Chemical soared $1.13 or 12.83% to $9.94.

On the front of economic data, a release by Commerce Department showed that factory orders unexpectedly jumped 1.8% in February. Economists expected factory orders to rise 1.5%.

According to Department of Labor, number of Americans filing first- time claims for unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to 669,000 in the week ending March 28. Economists had forecast jobless claims to rise to 650,000. The four-week average of seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims, a less volatile gauge, rose 6,500 to 656,750. Continuing claims for the week ending March 21 climbed 161,000 to a record 5.73 million.

European stocks settled up. The U.K. FTSE jumped 169.36 points or 4.28% to 4124.97. The German DAX and French CAC  increased 6.07% and 5.37 respectively.

Asian stocks finished solidly higher. The Nikkei 225 jumped 367.87 points or 4.40%% to 8,719.78. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong soared 1,002.43 points or 7.41% to 14,521.97.

NYMEX crude oil for May delivery declined $4.25 or 8.8% to settle at $52.64.
 
Disclosure: Author does not own any of the stocks discussed here.