Stocks extend rally; Dow adds 135 points

U.S. stocks extended their biggest monthly rally in more than three years, and the Dow Jones industrial average surpassed 13,000 for the first time, spurred by profits at Boeing Co. and Amazon.com Inc. that topped analysts' forecasts.

Boeing rose $1.02 to a record $94.69 after earnings surged 27 percent. Amazon jumped $12.06 - the most in five years - to $56.81 after the online retailer raised its 2007 projections. More than two-thirds of 230 Standard & Poor's 500 Index members have reported profits that topped analysts' forecasts.

"It's a global spring fling," said Frederic Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co., which manages $17 billion in Great Falls, Mont. "It's really caught investors by surprise who had low earnings expectations."

Alcoa Inc. had the Dow average's top advance, rising $1.81 to $35.76 after saying it may sell some units. Energy stocks gained. Share prices were also lifted by a Commerce Department report showing that durable-goods orders rose more than forecast in March, signaling that business spending started to recover as the first quarter ended.

The Dow industrials added 135.95, or 1.1 percent, to 13,089.89, the highest close ever.

The S&P 500 increased 15.01, or 1 percent, to 1,495.42, the highest since September 2000. The 5.2 percent advance in April is the most for a month since October 2003. The Nasdaq composite index gained 23.35, or 0.9 percent, to 2,547.89.

Crude oil surged more than $1 a barrel, and gasoline jumped to the highest level since August, after a government report showed that U.S. inventories of motor fuel fell 2.79 million barrels to 194.2 million, the lowest since Oct. 7, 2005, when refineries were shut because of hurricanes. Refineries ran at 87.8 percent of capacity, down 2.9 percentage points from the previous week, the Energy Department said. A 0.5-percentage-point gain was expected, according to the median of responses in a Bloomberg News survey.

"This report has to be seen as bullish because refinery runs plunged," said John Kilduff, vice president of risk management at Man Financial Inc. in New York. "Most of us were expecting refiners to increase runs, or at least keep them steady, but the string of problems is obviously being felt. We can't build gasoline supplies, which is the focus now."

Crude-oil futures for June delivery rose $1.26, or 2 percent, to $65.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are down 10 percent from a year ago. The contracts for July through December are higher than the front-month contract.

Gasoline for May delivery surged 7.37 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $2.2826 a gallon, the highest since Aug. 7.