Next Stop: Dow 10,000?

Stock markets soared Thursday on better-than-expected quarterly earning news, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average leaping 188.03 points to 9069.29, the first time it has broken through the 9,000 mark since January, the Wall Street Journal writes. That caps a remarkable rally that has seen the Dow gain 38.5 percent in less than five months—"the biggest percentage gain in such a short time since 1975," notes the paper.

Yesterday's Dow surge was spurred on by solid results from the likes of Ford (F), eBay (EBAY), and AT&T (T) while the Nasdaq also continued on a tear (posting its 11th straight gain in a row), thanks to what the Los Angeles Times calls "a jolt" from Starbucks (SBUX). The coffee giant's shares jumped $2.70, or 18.4 percent—the biggest one-day gain since the firm went public in 1992—after the company reported that cost-cutting helped it beat the Street in its fiscal third-quarter estimates. Earlier today, Asian markets hit a fresh 10-month high "as investors took their lead from Wall Street" while also being cheered by news that the South Korean economy grew by its fastest rate in more than five years, the Financial Times reports. Samsung Electronics is indicative of this growth—its quarterly profit "climbed to the highest in more than two years, exceeding analysts’ estimates, fueled by higher sales of televisions and mobile phones," writes Bloomberg.

Yet amid the euphoria there was still plenty of room for concern for U.S. businesses, as Microsoft (MSFT) has painfully learned. It posted a 29 percent drop in quarterly profit and reported weak sales across all of its units, confirming "the software giant's first full year of declining sales since it went public more than two decades ago," the WSJ reports. Notably, the "division that houses the flagship Windows operating system, which accounts for more than half of Microsoft's operating profit, [saw revenue fall] 29% from a year ago to $3.11 billion." Another bellwether stock, American Express (AXP), reported that its profits were nearly cut in half in the latest quarter as it sought to pay back the government bailout loan it received this year. And even Amazon (AMZN), which has seen its share price grow by more than 80 percent since the start of the year, disappointed Wall Street expectations, though CNN Money reports that "Chief Financial Officer Thomas Szkutak said the profit decline was due to a $52 million settlement the company paid in June to resolve a dispute with Toys 'R' Us." That said, unlike many retailers' sales, Amazon's  continue to grow. North American sales rose 13 percent to $2.45 billion, while international sales in the U.K., France, Germany, Japan, and China rose 16 percent to $2.2 billion, driven by a 35 percent increase in consumer electronics and other general merchandise sales, the FT reports.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally's star is certainly rising. The carmaker reported a tidy $2.3 billion profit on Thursday, considerably better than analysts were expecting. The WSJ, though, points out that that windfall came "mainly from gains it recorded as part of efforts to restructure its debt during the quarter," adding that, "excluding those gains, Ford would have reported a loss of $424 million." Still, making profits in autos is no easy feat these days. As the Washington Post notes, Ford broke a string of four straight unprofitable quarters, and it is just one year removed from its worst quarter ever, an $8.7 billion dud in Q2 2008. Analysts, too, are pleased in Ford's progress stealing market share from rivals General Motors (GMGMQ) and Chrysler. "Under Mulally, Ford appears to be building better cars and trucks, analysts said. The Ford Fiesta, which launches in the United States next year, is now Europe's second-best-selling car," the Washington Post writes.

As Americans continue to default on home mortgages and home-equity loans at a record pace, in steps the Fed with new protections. "The proposals seek to overhaul the timing and content of disclosures to consumers, and to ban controversial side payments to mortgage brokers for steering customers to higher-cost loans," the WSJ writes. The Washington Post points out the Fed really needs some positive PR from this proposal. "The plan, which builds on a similar effort adopted by the Fed last year, comes just as the central bank is trying to fend off a legislative initiative that would strip its consumer-protection role by creating an agency to oversee consumer financial products," the newspaper writes. 

Do the likes of Goldman Sachs (GS) and some canny hedge funds have a secret technological weapon to reap gaudy trading profits? It's called high-frequency trading, "suddenly one of the most talked-about and mysterious forces in the markets," the NYT writes. Some Wall Street firms use these lightning-fast computers to execute millions of orders at blazing speeds "and, their detractors contend, reap billions at everyone else’s expense." These computers may even explain Goldman's recent gaudy profits, the newspaper writes.