The stock market resumed its rally after getting encouraging readings on two of the best gauges of the economy's health: consumer spending and corporate profits. Traders pounced on news that retailers last month had their first sales gains in more than a year. That followed late Wednesday's good news from Alcoa Inc. The company surprised investors with its first profit in nine months.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61.29, or 0.6 percent, to 9,786.87.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 7.90, or 0.8 percent, to 1,065.48.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 13.60, or 0.6 percent, to 2,123.93.

For the week:

The Dow is up 299.20, or 3.2 percent.

The S&P is up 40.27, or 3.9 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 75.82, or 3.7 percent.

For the year:

The Dow is up 1,010.48, or 11.5 percent.

The S&P is up 162.23, or 18.0 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 546.90, or 34.7 percent.

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All my posts are purely my opinion. Please use your own buy and sell signals and never invest in a stock you can not afford to lose money on.