August 27, 2015: Markets opened higher again on Thursday and climbed to intra-day highs with about 2 hours left in the day’s trading session. The morning report on second-quarter GDP growth came in higher than expected primarily as a result stronger data for the last half of the quarter. Crude oil settled at $42.53, up more than 10% on the day, but natural gas lost a couple of pennies after a larger-than-expected injection into storage. Gold settled down 0.2% at $1,122.60, it’s fourth consecutive loss. With an hour to go before the closing bell, the DJIA was about 280 points below its intraday high, but was bouncing higher as the trading session was ending. Shortly before the closing bell the DJIA traded up 1.86% for the day, the S&P 500 traded up 2.02%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up 2.00%.

The DJIA stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close Thursday was Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) which traded up 5.64% at $77.21. The stock’s 52-week range is $69.58 to $129.53. About 17 million shares traded hands today, nearly double the daily average of about 9 million. The company had no specific news today, but the crude oil price bounce was a boon to oil companies everywhere today.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) traded higher by 3.96%% at $24.96. The stock’s 52-week range is $19.37 to $28.68. Trading volume was about 75% above the daily average of around 32 million. The company had no specific news today, although there was some speculation that GE might be seeking an acquisition in the oilfield services business.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) traded up 3.39% at $117.31. The stock’s 52-week range is $80.72 to $126.21. Trading volume was about equal to the daily average of around 4.4 million. The company had no specific news today.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) traded up 3.21% at $112.25. The stock’s 52-week range is $78.27 to $117.72. Trading volume was about 65% above the daily average of around 3.3 million. The company had no specific news today, but an analyst pointed out the low oil prices benefit Nike and other sportswear makers because their products use oil-based synthetic fabric.

All 30 Dow stocks are on track to close higher today.

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