Market report : Stocks climb along with stability

Wall Street extended its recovery from last week’s big plunge, rising Thursday after several stable sessions helped buttress investor sentiment and allay some concerns about the economy.

Thursday’s advance helped investors speed past lackluster retail sales figures and focus on more promising comments about March sales. Investors also grew more confident following gains in markets in Europe and Asia. The dollar was mixed against major currencies and fought its way higher against the yen, easing some concern about whether global liquidity would tighten.

Investors eager for signals about the health of the economy bet on rising fortunes for U.S. businesses a day ahead of the Labor Department’s much-anticipated February employment report. Strong employment is seen as crucial on Wall Street because robust consumer spending has kept the economy charging ahead in recent years. Larger concerns about the economy figured heavily in last week’s selloff.

“I think we got a little bit too negative too fast,” said Brian Levitt, corporate economist at OppenheimerFunds Inc., referring to the Feb. 27 global selloff that sent the major U.S. indexes down more than 3 percent. “They failed to see the broader picture that there still is fairly good underlying strength in the economy.”

The Dow Jones industrials were up more than 100 points in afternoon trading before pulling back amid rumors a subprime lender would declare bankruptcy. The Dow closed up 68.25, or 0.56 percent, at 12,260.70.

Lender New Century Financial Corp. announced after the markets closed that it would no longer be accepting loan applications, and that it secured $265 million in financing to help it meet financial obligations. The market is highly sensitive to news about mortgage problems; concerns about subprime lenders and mortgage defaults contributed to last week’s decline.

“This is one of the fears that has kind of been overhanging the market,” said Larry Peruzzi, senior equity trader at The Boston Company Asset Management

Broader stock indicators also put up sizable gains Thursday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 9.92, or 0.71 percent, to 1,401.89, and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 13.09, or 0.55 percent, to 2,387.73.

Bonds fell as stocks advanced; the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.51 percent from 4.50 percent late Wednesday. Gold prices rose.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.65 billion shares, compared to 1.71 billion shares at the same point on Wednesday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 5.24, or 0.68 percent, to 781.14.

Overseas, the Nikkei rose 1.94 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 1.36 percent and the sometimes-volatile Shanghai Composite Exchange rose 1.08 percent. It was a nearly 9 percent drop in Shanghai on Feb. 27 that helped ignite a worldwide spasm of selling that led major U.S. indexes to give back their gains for the year.

In Europe, stocks added to gains after the U.S. markets advanced. Britain’s FTSE 100 closed up 1.16 percent, Germany’s DAX index added 1.44 percent, and France’s CAC-40 advanced 1.27 percent.