U.S. stocks snapped a three-day losing streak as reports on jobless claims and manufacturing added to evidence the recession may be near a bottom.

Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. climbed at least 4.4 percent as the total number of people collecting unemployment insurance fell by the most in almost eight years. Alcoa Inc. and DuPont Co. added more than 1.7 percent as gauges of leading economic indicators and Philadelphia’s economy topped economists’ estimates. Discover Financial Services rallied as the credit-card company’s loan losses grew less than forecast.

“The market has run out of fantastic reasons to sell,” said Stephen Wood, who helps manage $136 billion as chief market strategist for North America at Russell Investments in New York. “Those Armageddon, Great Depression, worst-case scenarios being priced in a few months ago are now a low probability, and the recovery reflects that.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallied 0.8 percent to 918.34 at 4:04 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 57.59 points, or 0.7 percent, to 8,554.77. The Nasdaq Composite lagged behind other indexes, slipping less than 0.1 percent as SanDisk Corp. tumbled on an analyst downgrade. Ten-year Treasury yields rose 0.12 percentage point to 3.81 percent. The dollar strengthened versus the euro.

(Bloomberg.com)