Stocks Rally on ECB Stimulus

U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday, as investors came to grips with the European Central Bank’s plan to initiate a bond-buying program intended to revive the slumping eurozone economy. At close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 259.70 points, or 1.48%, to 17,813.98. The S&P 500 gained 31.03 points, or 1.53%, to 2,063.15. The Nasdaq Composite rose 82.98 points, or 1.78%, to 4,750.40.

The European Central Bank took the ultimate policy leap on Thursday, launching a government bond-buying program which will pump hundreds of billions in new money into a sagging euro zone economy.Together with existing schemes to buy private debt and funnel hundreds of billions of euros in cheap loans to banks, the new quantitative easing program will release 60 billion euros ($68 billion) a month into the economy, ECB President Mario Draghi said.

Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) on Thursday reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of $983.1 million. On a per-share basis, the Seattle-based company said it had profit of $1.30. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were 80 cents per share. The results met Wall Street expectations.

Shares of E-Trade Financial (ETFC) rallied 4.2% in after-hours trade Thursday, after the discount brokerage reported fourth-quarter sales that rose above expectations and as trading activity increased. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, net earnings fell to $41 million, or 14 cents a share, from $58 million, or 20 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.

This week’s U.S. supply report showed an increase that was four times as large as Wall Street expected and pushed crude stockpiles to their highest level in 80 years. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Thursday that crude inventories rose by 10.1 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 16.