Stocks Surge on Draghi's Eurozone Pledge

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stocks continued to soar in the final hour of trading Thursday with investors seizing on a promise by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to pull out all stops to keep the eurozone intact.

"The ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro," said Draghi at an investors conference in London. "And believe me, it will be enough."

The rally was also drawing confidence from favorable U.S. economic data, including a fall in weekly initial jobless claims and an increase in durable goods orders.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 214 points, or 1.69%, at 12,890. The blue-chip index ran as high as 12,931 earlier in the session.

All 30 Dow components were in positive territory. The biggest percentage gainers were 3M(MMM) , American Express(AXP) , The Home Depot(HD) , General Electric(GE) , Merck(MRK) and Walt Disney(DIS) .

It didn't hurt that earnings reports from a trio of Dow components were all fairly positive.

United Technologies(UTX) shares ticked up after the company posted a slight increase in quarterly earnings on a year-over-year basis as slowing Chinese economic growth and the European crisis hurt sales. The company managed to beat on the bottom line but was light on the top line.

3M shares were up 2.4% after the diversified technology company beat quarterly earnings estimates amid strength in its health care, industrial and transportation businesses. 3M reported a second-quarter profit of $1.66 a share; analysts expected $1.65 a share. Sales of $7.53 billion came in about $250 million below the Wall Street target. 3M's full-year outlook was unchanged.

Shares of Exxon Mobil(XOM) added 1.2% after the oil and gas giant reported second-quarter earnings of $1.86 a share on revenue of $127.36 billion; analysts expected earnings of $1.95 a share on revenue of $115.08 billion.

The S&P 500 was gaining nearly 22 points, or 1.63%, at 1360, while the Nasdaq was advancing about 39 points, or 1.36%, at 2893.

The strongest sectors in the broad market were consumer non-cyclicals, conglomerates and energy. Advancers were running ahead of decliners by roughly 2-to-1 ratios on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.