Stocks advanced today, with Wall Street enthusiastic about Home Depot Inc.’s $22.5 billion stock-repurchase plan and Morgan Stanley’s wider-than-expected quarterly profit.

Investors were pleased that Home Depot, one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones industrial average, is buying back more than a quarter of its shares and selling its Home Depot Supply business for $10.3 billion to a group of private equity firms. The decisions are not only likely to increase the retailer’s profit, but they also bolster the idea that stocks, despite their big run-up this year, have further to climb. (AP)