Labor Report Provides Spark; Chase, Wells and Citi Among Gainers

Bank stocks and the broader markets rose Thursday, helped by a better-than-expected report on jobless claims.

The KBW Bank Index rose 1.01%, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.06% and the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.35% after the Labor Department said that the number of initial unemployment claims for the week that ended July 4 fell to 565,000. Economists on average had expected 605,000 claims.

Traders also said investors picked up bargains from sell-offs earlier in the week.

Gainers were across the board. JPMorgan Chase & Co. rose 2.8%, Bank of America Corp., 1.1%, Wells Fargo & Co., 1.6%, PNC Financial Services Group Inc., 0.9% and U.S. Bancorp, 0.2%.

Citigroup Inc.'s shares rose 7 cents, to $2.69, after the New York company Thursday announced a management shake-up. Gary Crittenden, vice chairman and a former chief financial officer, is leaving for what were said to be personal reasons, to be replaced at the board level by the current CFO Edward "Ned" Kelly. In turn, Kelly will give up his CFO post to the controller John Gerspach. Meanwhile, Eugene McQuade, one-time president of Freddie Mac, was named the chief executive of Citibank.

Among the regionals, SunTrust Banks Inc. rose 1.9%, KeyCorp, 1.6%, Zions Bancorp., 3.7%, Comerica Inc., 0.7% and Regions Financial Corp. rose 8 cents, to $3.84.

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