Stocks rallied on Thursday. Alcoa, American Express, and Bank of America led the way up. Brands prospered amid a deluge of economic news. Comments from the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting bolstered trading action. The FOMC announced an open-ended plan to buy $40 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities per month and extended its promise to keep interest rates at their zero levels until at least mid-2015. Meanwhile, wholesale inflation was on the rise in August. The Labor Department said its producer price index increased 1.7 percent last month, after rising 0.3 percent in July. The results exceeded economists’ expectations for a 1.1 percent upswing. Another report from the Labor Department showed a jump in initial jobless claims. New claims rose by 15,000 to 382,000 last week, which was well beyond expectations of an increase to 370,000. Elsewhere, crude oil tacked on $1.27 to settle at $98.31.
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