Business Briefs

Earnings, jobs data propel Wall Street

NEW YORK — Stocks surged higher Thursday after another series of upbeat earnings reports and a reading on unemployment provided more evidence of an improving economy.

The Dow Jones industrials rose 122 points after the Labor Department said initial claims for unemployment benefits fell last week. And companies including Motorola, Time Warner Cable and Starwood Hotels & Resorts reported earnings that topped analysts' forecasts.

It was the market's second straight winning day after a plunge Tuesday that took the Dow down 213. Greece's debt problems, one of the triggers for that slide, appeared less dire Wednesday.

Deal-making added to the growing optimism. Hewlett-Packard Co. said late Wednesday it is buying smart phone maker Palm Inc. for $1.4 billion. Acquisitions are a sign that the economy is recovering.

Investors will get their first reading on the overall economy during the first quarter today, when the Commerce Department releases the gross domestic product before the U.S. stock market opens.

Obama nominates 3 for Fed positions

WASHINGTON — Putting a bigger stamp on the Federal Reserve, President Obama on Thursday chose Janet Yellen as vice chairwoman of the central bank and filled two other vacancies on the board, which has enormous power over Americans' pocketbooks. The nominations are subject to Senate approval. If all three are confirmed, Obama will have appointed five of the seven members of the Fed board.

Yellen is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. As vice chair, the second-highest-ranking Fed official, her duties would include helping build support for policy positions staked out by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Obama also nominated Sarah Raskin and Peter Diamond to the Fed board. Raskin is the Maryland commissioner of financial regulation. Diamond is an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mortgage lenders set to be rated

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the Obama administration will rate mortgage firms on how they treat customers in its $75 billion foreclosure relief effort.

The new report will include measurements on how each is handling borrowers and is expected by July, Geithner told Senate lawmakers Thursday. More than 100 companies are participating in the program, designed to help up to 4 million borrowers avoid foreclosure. Geithner says many companies 'are not responding to the needs of responsible and increasingly desperate homeowners.'

Criminal probe of Goldman under way

WASHINGTON — The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan is conducting a criminal investigation of Goldman Sachs over mortgage securities deals the big Wall Street firm arranged, a person knowledgeable of the probe said Thursday.

The person said the probe stems from a criminal referral by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The source spoke on condition of anonymity. The SEC earlier this month filed civil fraud charges against Goldman and a trader in connection with the transactions. Goldman has denied the charges and said it will contest them in court.

Wire reports