Stocks soared Thursday as positive economic and corporate reports put investors in a buying mood. The S&P/TSX composite index jumped 77.23 points to 6,570.37.

Techs led the pack after Hewlett-Packard beat expectations in its latest quarterly report. The TSX information technology sector surged 6.9% as Nortel Networks climbed 26¢ to $2.57, and Celestica was ahead $2.78 at $27.88.

Financial stocks were strong as TD Bank added 80¢ to $32.05, as the chief of its money-losing TD Securities left as part of CEO-designate Ed Clark’s return to basic banking. Scotiabank was up $1 to $46.98.

Bombardier rose 27 cents to $5.48 after announcing a $1.1-billion outsourcing deal with California tech services company Computer Sciences.

The TSX Venture Exchange was flat at 942.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 197.25 points to 8,820.26. The Nasdaq gained 40.44 points to 1,459.79. The S&P 500 added 16.96 points to 931.11.

U.S. markets got a big boost when Hewlett-Packard announce a quarterly profit of US$390 million, compared with a year-ago loss of US$505 million for since-merged HP and Compaq. Its stock rose US$2.35 to US$19.20 US.

In economic news, U.S. claims for unemployment insurance plunged to 376,000 last week, the lowest level in four months. And the U.S. Conference Board’s leading indicator was flat in October; analysts had expected a slight decline.

The Canadian dollar rose US0.27¢ to US63.33¢ after Statistics Canada reported that the annualized inflation rate hit 3.2% in October. That indicated the economy is solid and interest rates may rise soon.