IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday as investors grew hopeful about the economic recovery after a surprising quarterly profit from Alcoa Inc and data pointing to a stabilizing labor market.

Credit card issuers' recent actions prove that lawmakers should move up the effective date of new restrictions on card interest rates and fees, U.S. Representative Barney Frank said on Thursday.

The increasing use of dark pools, or venues where stock trades are hidden from public view, is a growing concern for regulators, the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday.

Microblogging service Twitter is in advanced talks with Google Inc and Microsoft Corp about licensing its data feed to the companies' search engines, a Web blog associated with the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The chief executives of Amazon.com Inc, FPL Group, Eastman Kodak and Kraft Foods are among business leaders attending a lunch meeting with President Barack Obama on Thursday, the White House said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co has abandoned a plan to sell One Chase Manhattan Plaza, its Lower Manhattan office tower, because the bids it received were unacceptable, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Lee Lin had a full-time job, three rental properties and a problem: he had no time to find tenants to live in them. He tried advertising on free-listing websites like Craigslist, but found it too time consuming, so he created an alternative.

U.S. housing prices may still fall more than 10 percent, killing an incipient recovery, as demand from first-time home buyers fades, leading economist Nouriel Roubini said on Thursday.

Marriott International posted a lower quarterly profit on Thursday and said pricing pressures would continue to erode margins next year, sending its shares down as much as 5.9 percent.

Shares of health insurers slumped on Thursday as analysts said a report issued on a key U.S. Senate healthcare reform bill should give the legislation a boost.

PepsiCo Inc reported weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue on Thursday, hurt by falling North American soft drink sales, and cautioned it did not expect a major revival of consumer spending next year.

Stocks rallied on Thursday on hopes of a strong earnings season after a solid profit from Alcoa Inc and a data suggesting stabilization in the labor market.

Text messaging can help smokers quit the habit, according to an international study.

Morgan Stanley likely broke a string of three straight losses in the third quarter, while chief rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc extended its dominance.

The increasing use of dark pools, or venues where stock trades are hidden from public view, is a growing concern for regulators, the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday.

Suspected concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk will go on trial on November 30 facing charges of helping to kill 27,900 Jews during World War Two, a German court said on Thursday.

A senior aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday defended Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, who is facing calls for his resignation for having written about paying boys for sex in Thailand.

South Korea's foreign minister said on Thursday there were no signs that the North was in the final stages of restoring an aging nuclear plant, knocking down a report that operations could soon resume at the facility.

U.S. President Barack Obama's special peace envoy sought on Thursday an early relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian talks, but Israel said Washington's goal of comprehensive peace was an illusion.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless insurance hit a nine-month low last week and retailers reported their first monthly sales gain in over a year on Thursday, easing fears that recovery from recession would be unsustainable.

Stocks extended gains, driving the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq up more than 1 percent, as investors bet on more upbeat earnings following Alcoa Inc's surprising profit.

A large bomb exploded outside the Indian embassy in central Kabul on Thursday, killing 17 people and wounding 76, in the latest of a series of militant attacks on diplomatic and government buildings in the capital.

A combative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed on Thursday to govern with even more grit after Italy's top court lifted his immunity and he dismissed corruption charges against him as laughable.

Undersea earthquakes caused panic in the South Pacific on Thursday, sending islanders fleeing to higher ground on fears of a second devastating tsunami in as many weeks, but a series of waves proved to be tiny and harmless.

Japan's new prime minister will seek to keep periodically fraught ties with China and South Korea on track at weekend summits, avoiding rows that could hurt economic links and pitching his idea of an East Asia regional grouping.

Ford Motor Co's Volvo Cars denied a Swedish newspaper report on Thursday claiming that the unit's chief executive would leave the company by the end of the year, dismissing the article as pure speculation.

Melanie Hain, the soccer mom who gained national attention after openly carrying a loaded handgun to her daughter's soccer game, was shot dead along with her husband Scott Hain, the Pennlive reported Thursday.

President Barack Obama met on Wednesday with the two top Democrats in Congress to discuss ways to spur the economy and reverse a climb in the U.S. unemployment rate, which is now at a 26-year-high.

Beating Expectations; Jobless Claim Plunge; Citi Gets Good Marks