By Lynn Thomasson July 30 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rose and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index approached a nine-month high as companies from Motorola Inc. to MasterCard Inc. posted better-than-estimated results and jobless claims held below June levels. Treasuries gained on a better-than-forecast auction of seven-year notes. Motorola rallied 9.4 percent, the most since November, as job cuts helped the biggest U.S. mobile-phone maker report a smaller loss than analysts projected. MasterCard added 3 percent on earnings that topped the average forecast by 11 percent. General Electric Co. advanced 6.9 percent for its steepest gain since April on speculation new banking rules will let the company keep its finance unit. The S&P 500 added 1.2 percent to 986.75 at 4:08 p.m. in New York, the highest close since Nov. 4. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 83.74 points, or 0.9 percent, to 9,154.46. European and Asian stocks gained, pushing the MSCI World Index up 1.5 percent. Brazil’s Bovespa jumped 1.4 percent. “We’re still in the stage that the rising tide of a recovering economy is going to lift all boats,” said Marc Harris, co-head of global research at RBC Capital Markets in New York. “This phase of the bad news getting less bad is continuing to be sustained. There’s a lot of hope and optimism that’s being built in.” All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 advanced today after the Labor Department’s weekly jobless data bolstered expectations firings are slowing as the economy stabilizes. Applications for jobless benefits rose by 25,000 to 584,000 in the week ended July 25, compared with more than 600,000 claims every week last month. The total number of people collecting unemployment benefits decreased for a third week. Earnings-Fueled Rally The S&P 500 and Dow average have risen 12 percent since July 10 as companies including Caterpillar Inc. and 3M Co. reported results that topped estimates. The surge left the benchmark index for U.S. equities trading at about 16.7 times its companies’ profits over the past 12 months, the highest level since September, according to Bloomberg data. About three out of every four companies in the S&P 500 that released results since June 17 have exceeded analysts’ second- quarter profit estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The data shows they’ve beaten forecasts by an average 9 percent, even as earnings tumbled 31 percent. Motorola increased 9.4 percent to $7.19 after reporting a loss, excluding some costs, of 1 cent a share. That beat the average estimate of 4 cents by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. MasterCard, Visa Gain MasterCard jumped 3 percent to $194.11. The world’s second- biggest payment-card network raised fees and processed more purchases in the second quarter, driving profit to $2.68 a share to exceed the average analyst estimate of $2.42. Visa Inc., which runs the No. 1 credit-card network, gained 0.6 percent to $67.21 after it also topped projections with more consumers paying bills with credit, charge and debit cards. GE increased 6.9 percent to $13.11. Companies that already have finance arms or industrial-loan businesses should be able to retain them without being subject to Federal Reserve oversight of their manufacturing operations, U.S. Representative Barney Frank said in an interview with Bloomberg News yesterday. GE, which makes everything from jet engines to medical imaging machines, was also upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The shares pared a rally of as much as 9 percent after CreditSights Inc. said the finance unit may need as much as $14.7 billion in additional capital over the next two years if the economy deteriorates more than expected. Forty-nine companies in the S&P 500 were scheduled to release second-quarter earnings today. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. each rallied more than 13 percent for the steepest gains in the S&P 500 after posting earnings that exceeded estimates. ‘Profit Snapback’ “We’re going to have a very strong profit snapback because companies have done so well managing costs during this downturn,” Fritz Meyer, the senior market strategist for Invesco Aim, which oversees $348 billion, said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Toronto. “Unemployment claims probably signify that we’re exiting the recession and back into recovery.” Better-than-estimated results from Dow Chemical Co. and higher metals prices helped propel a measure of raw-material companies up 3 percent, the steepest gain among the 10 main industry groups in the S&P 500. Dow, the largest U.S. chemical maker, jumped 6.2 percent to $21.53, while Alcoa Inc. gained 4.1 percent to $11.46 as copper, aluminum, nickel and zinc prices advanced. Barrick Gold Corp. increased 3 percent after the company beat analysts’ earnings forecasts. Akamai Plunges Akamai Technologies Inc.fell the most in the S&P 500, plunging 19 percent to $16.51. The provider of software that makes Web sites load faster reported profit and sales trailed expectations. Treasuries rose after the highest seven-year note yields in more than a month bolstered demand at the government’s auction of a record $28 billion of the securities. The debt drew a yield of 3.369 percent, below the median forecast of 3.394 percent in survey of eight of the Federal Reserve’s primary dealers. The sale follows record auctions of two- and five-year notes the past two days that attracted lower-than-forecast interest from investors. To contact the reporter on this story: Lynn Thomasson in New York at lthomasson@bloomberg.net.

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