After sliding for two successive days, stocks managed to find some footing and ended Thursday with impressive gains as companies from McDonald’s to PNC Financial reported solid quarterly earnings.  A mixed bag of economic reports notwithstanding, the Dow average once again scaled the 10,000 mark as components Travelers Cos, 3M Co., and AT&T Inc. posted stronger-than-expected results.

Investors, looking for bargains, picked up financial shares as many banks noted lower loan losses.  Travelers (NYSE:TRV) surged almost 8% after reporting a three-fold jump in quarterly profit.  Travelers, together with McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), led the Dow average higher.  AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), also a Dow component, rose 0.6% after reporting better-than-expected profit.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 132 points, or 1.3%, to close at 10,081.31 and the S&P 500 index rose 11 points, or 1%.  The tech-heavy NASDAQ, limited by late-session, downward guidance from eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), gained 14 points, or 0.7%.

The

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U.S. stocks are continuing their upward march on growing belief that the economy is turning a corner as better-than-expected earnings from companies continue to impress investors.  After a four-week retreat, benchmark gauges have leapt forward as the appetite to assume risk has grown significantly.  Safe-havens like treasuries have come under pressure as investors have committed more money into stocks. 

On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 188 points, or 2.1%, and closed at its highest point since November 5; the broad-based S&P 500 index rose to its highest in eight months, jumping 22 points, or 2.5% and the Nasdaq surged 47 points or 2.5%, closing higher for the twelfth consecutive session.  The tech-heavy index recorded its best performance since 1992.  Treasuries declined, with the 10-year off 31/32 and the corresponding yield up to 3.665%.

Although much of the earnings growth has been driven by cost-cutting measures, it has

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - May 15, 2009 - Zacks Equity Research highlights Petrobras (PBR) as the Bull of the Day and Liberty Interactive (LINTA) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on D.R. Horton (DHI), Whirlpool (WHR) and Fortune Brands (FO).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We are changing our recommendation on Petrobras (PBR) ADRs from Hold to Buy. We like Petrobras for its positive production-growth profile, and the improving outlook for its downstream business.

Moreover, the discovery of the giant Tupi field opens up a new range of possibilities for the company in the long run. The continued growth in production is a trend that should prevail

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Fortune Brands's (FO) first-quarter earnings came in at 30 cents per share, excluding items, which was in-line with the company's prediction on Tuesday.

The owner of Jim Beam and Moen brands also reaffirmed full-year earnings guidance to range between $2.00 and $2.50 per share. The outlook is in-line with the consensus estimate which has moved up by 3 cents over the past week to $2.27 per share.

Sales were down 20% year-over-year to $1.4 billion amid a worsening US housing downturn and reduced discretionary spending by customers.

Earlier this week, Fortune slashed its annual dividend by $1 to 76 cents per share in an effort to boost cash flow.

FO, a Zacks #3 Rank ("Hold") stock, has advanced 7% today and is trading on higher-than-usual-volume of approximately 3.7 million.

"FO" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?Zacks Investment Research

The third-largest US automaker, Chrysler, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday. The firm is expected to undergo a 30-60 day restructuring, receiving $8 billion in government funds and creating an alliance with Italian automaker Fiat, which managed its owned turnaround in the past 5 years.

Today's expected releases include: Allergan (NYSE:AGN), Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Clorox (NYSE:CLX), Dean Foods (NYSE:DF), and MasterCard (NYSE:MA).

Aon (NYSE:AOC) reported a first quarter as earnings at 76, 12 cents less than expected, along with a 2.7% revenue decline to $1.85 billion.

Dean Foods (NYSE:DF) reported first quarter results of 52 cents, 10 cents better than expected, as revenues dropped 12.2% to $2.7 billion with indications of a solid start to the second quarter.

Fortune Brands (NYSE:FO) reported first quarter results of $1.03, ahead of estimates by 8 cents notwithstanding revenues plunged 20.3% to $1.44 billion, as was expected.

Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) received an analyst upgrade from UBS (NYSE:UBS).

Goldman Sachs

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Monday:Economic Leading Indicators (-0.3%)Earnings Eaton (ETN), Halliburton (HAL), Mattel (MAT), American Express (AXP), Everest (RE), Hexcel (HXL), Logitech (LOGI), Netflix (NFLX), SanDisk (SNDK), Texas Instruments (TXN)Tuesday:Economic NAEarnings 3M (MMM), Caterpillar (CAT), Biogen (BIIB), BlackRock (BLK), Coach (COH), Fifth Third (FITB), M&T Bank (MTB), OptionsXpress (OXPS), US Banc (USB), Stanley (SWK), Broadcom (BRCM), CH Robinson (CHRW), Cree (CREE), Cerner (CERN), E*Trade (ETFC), Qlogic (QLGC), Sigma Aldrich (SIAL), VMware (VMW), XL Cap (XL), Yahoo (YHOO), Tupperware (TUP)Wednesday:Economic Weekly CrudeEarnings Air Prod (APD), Alleghany (ATI), AT&T (T), Boeing (BA), Conoco (COP), EMC (EMC), CNX (CNX), Genzyme (GENZ), McDonalds (MCD), Merck (MRK), WellPoint (WLP), Allstate (ALL), Amazon (AMZN), Amgen (AMGN), Baidu (BIDU), Chipotle (CMG), Citrix (CTXS), Core Labs (CLB), Lam R (LRCX), Nutrisystem (NTRI), Pulte (PHM), Terex (TEX), Ryland (RYL), Seagate (STX)Thursday:Economic Weekly ClaimsEarnings Altria (MO), Bunge ...