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U.S. stocks rose to multi-year highs on Thursday, as investors dismissed a series of mixed earnings reports as well as disappointing economic news.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 72 points, or 0.6%; to close at 12,763.

Boeing (BA, Fortune 500) led the Dow higher, with its shares rising more than 3% a day after the company reported its quarterly results. Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) was among the biggest drag on the blue-chip index, after it reported sales that fell short of forecasts. Exxon Mobil’s stock slid less than 1%.

S&P 500 (SPX) rose 5 points, or 0.4%, to 1,360; and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) rose a modest 3 points, or 0.1%, to 2,873.

Both the Dow and the S&P 500 ended at levels not seen since May 2008.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was weighed down by shares of Akamai Technologies (AKAM), which dropped 14% after the company warned that sales would fall short of expectations. Still the Nasdaq closed at its highest level since December 2000.

Investors said Thursday’s gains were in part a continuation of Wednesday’s session, when stocks hit new highs following Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s first post-policy meeting press conference.

"A lot of the action is a repeat of what we had yesterday following the Fed announcement, we got the dollar declining, stocks rising and gold heading higher," said Brian Gendreau, market strategist with Financial Network.

The U.S. dollar fell against the euro, British pound and Japanese yen, with the U.S. Dollar Index, a security that tracks the dollar’s value against other major currencies, struck its lowest level in 21 months.

Economy: The dollar’s decline was in part due to the weaker-than-expected economic data that was out on Thursday.

The Department of Commerce released its report on first-quarter gross domestic product, showing that first-quarter GDP expanded at an annual rate of 1.8%, falling short of the 2% growth economists surveyed by CNNMoney had forecast.

The government also reported its weekly initial jobless claims data. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims totaled 429,000 last week.

That was worse than expected and also marked the third week in a row that jobless claims came in above the key 400,000 level no faxing payday loans.

A report from the National Association of Realtors showed a 5.1% rise in pending home sales for March, much higher than the 1.7% rise economists had expected.

Companies:Citrix Systems (CTXS) shares jumped 9.7% on Thursday, making it the best performer on the S&P 500, after the software supplier posted a strong jump in profits and higher-than-expected revenue.

Norfolk Southern (NSC, Fortune 500)’s stock rose 8% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue.

After the closing bell, Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) reported a quarterly profit of $5.2 billion, up 31% from a year earlier, on sales of $16.4 billion. Earnings and revenue topped forecasts.

Shares of Research in Motion (RIMM) plunged 12% in after-market trading after the BlackBerry maker cut its revenue forecast, citing lower than expected demand for smartphones.

Exelon (EXC, Fortune 500) an electric utility, announced a merger with Constellation Energy (CEG, Fortune 500), a supplier of natural gas and other energy products. The deal is worth $7.9 billion. Constellation’s stock rose 3.5%.

World markets: European stocks closed higher. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose less than 0.1%, the DAX in Germany added 1% and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.9%.

Asian markets ended mixed. Japan’s Nikkei index rallied 1.6%, but the Shanghai Composite dropped 1.3% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged down 0.4%.

Currencies and commodities: Oil for June delivery rose 11 cents to $112.68 a barrel.

Gold futures for June delivery rose $14.20 to settle at a record high of $1,531.20 an ounce. Earlier, gold hit a new intraday record of $1,535.50 an ounce and moved even higher in electronic trading.

Silver jumped more than 5% to $48.29 an ounce on Thursday.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 3.30% from 3.37% late Wednesday.  

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Stocks are closing higher after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said central bank officials expect the economy to continue recovering this year as the jobs market strengthens.

The Fed expects the economy to grow between 3.1 percent and 3.3 percent this year. That’s below the Fed’s previous forecast in January, but the Fed also said it’s more optimistic about the unemployment rate going lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 96 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 12,691 Wednesday.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 8, or 0.6 percent, at 1,356. The Nasdaq composite index is up 22, or 0.8 percent, at 2,870.

Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was 4.2 billion shares.

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Cigarette maker Lorillard says its net income increased 7 percent in the first quarter as it sold more Newport and Maverick cigarettes at higher prices.

Lorillard says it earned $248 million, or $1.71 per share, for the period ended March 31. That’s up from $232 million, or $1.50 per share, a year ago. The per-share figure was boosted by a lower number of shares outstanding.

The nation’s third-biggest tobacco company says revenue excluding excises taxes increased 14 percent to $1 payday loans.06 billion.

Analysts expected earnings of $1.57 per share on revenue of $955 million.

Lorillard, based in Greensboro, N.C., sold 9.5 percent more cigarettes on gains from Newport and lower-priced brands like Maverick. Rivals Reynolds American and Altria Group both reported selling fewer cigarettes during the quarter.

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Rebel fighters drove Moammar Gadhafi’s forces to the edge of the besieged western city of Misrata on Sunday, taking control of the main hospital where government troops had been holed up, a resident said.

In the fighting, Gadhafi loyalists fired dozens of rockets at Misrata on Sunday, said the resident, despite claims by the Libyan government that the army has held its fire since Friday. The resident asked to be identified only by his given name, Abdel Salam, for fear of retribution.

At least 28 people have been killed and 85 wounded by fighting in the city Saturday and Sunday, said Dr. Khaled Abu Falgah, head of the Misrata medical committee.

“The last 24 hours have been one of the hardest and saddest days in the last 65 days,” he said.

Libyan officials have said in the past two days that the military is pulling back in Misrata, ostensibly to enable tribal chiefs from the area to negotiate with the rebels. Late Saturday, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said troops remained in their positions in the city, but claimed they halted all activity.

Misrata, the only major rebel stronghold in Gadhafi-controlled western Libya, has become the most dramatic battleground in the Libyan uprising, which began in February after similar revolts in Tunisia and Egypt ousted longtime leaders. Fighting elsewhere in the country is at a stalemate, even with NATO airstrikes that began last month.

Hundreds of people have been killed in two months of a government siege backed by tanks, mortars and snipers firing from rooftops. Late last week, snipers either fled or were flushed out of an eight-story downtown building on a main thoroughfare, Tripoli Street, in a setback for Gadhafi loyalists who had controlled the city center.

The rebels have defended positions around Misrata’s seaport.

On Sunday, rebels took control of Misrata’s main hospital, on Tripoli Street, clearing government troops out of their last position in the city center, said Abdel Salam. “Now Gadhafi’s troops are on the outskirts of Misrata, using rocket launchers,” he said.

A Misrata rebel, 37-year-old Lutfi, said there had been 300-400 Gadhafi fighters in the main hospital and in the surrounding area that were trying to melt into the local population.

“They are trying to run way,” Lutfi said of the soldiers, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “They are pretending to be civilians. They are putting on sportswear.”

Thousands of people, many of them foreign workers, were stranded in Misrata during the fighting guaranteed cash advance. Since last week, hundreds of migrants, along with wounded Libyans, have been evacuated in aid vessels through the port.

One of those wounded, Misrata resident Osama al-Shahmi, said Gadhafi’s forces have been pounding the city with rockets.

“They have no mercy. They are pounding the city hard,” said al-Shahmi after being evacuated from Misrata.

“Everyone in Misrata is convinced that the dictator must go,” said al-Shahmi, 36, a construction company administrator who was wounded by shrapnel from a rocket. His right leg wrapped in bandages, al-Shahmi flashed a victory sign as he was wheeled on a gurney into a waiting ambulance upon arrival in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

In Washington, Sen. Lindsey Graham said NATO airstrikes should target Gadhafi’s inner circle and military headquarters, adding that the quickest way to end a military stalemate is “to cut the head of the snake off.”

Gadhafi “needs to wake up every day wondering, `Will this my last?’” Graham, a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

NATO said a U.S. Predator drone destroyed a multiple rocket launcher Saturday in the Misrata area that was being used against civilians. The Pentagon said it was the first attack carried out in Libya by one of the drones, which began flying missions in the country last week.

NATO said another armed drone destroyed an SA-8 surface-to-air missile Saturday in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The drone’s operators detected a group of civilians playing football near the missile site and waited to launch their attack until the players had dispersed.

“This Predator strike is a perfect example of the complex and fluid situation that NATO air forces are facing every day,” said Rear Adm. Russ Harding, the operation’s deputy commander.

He urged civilians to “distance themselves from Gadhafi regime forces, installations and equipment whenever possible so we can strike with greater success and with the minimum risk to civilians.”

The SA-8 is a Soviet-built anti-aircraft system dating from the late 1970s. It was the first air defense missile vehicle to mount its own targeting radar.

NATO aircraft have so far conducted nearly 3,600 sorties, including 1,500 strike sorties.

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PNC Bank has filed a federal lawsuit against an owner of two multi-family properties in St. Louis County seeking to recoup nearly $6 million in outstanding loans and asking the court to appoint receivers to take over management of both properties.

PNC Bank filed the suit in the District Court of St. Louis on April 18 against Gannon Partnership 19 LP and Aspen Cove Townhomes LLC, which are both affiliates of Gannon International, a privately-held business based in Creve Coeur.

PNC alleges Gannon defaulted on a loan for the 272-unit Springwood Apartments in Bel Ridge in North St. Louis County and owes nearly $5.7 million. PNC further alleges that Gannon has not adequately cared for the Springwood Apartments, as required under its loan terms. To support this allegation, PNC attached a copy of a letter Bel-Ridge city officials sent to Gannon in mid-March listing dozens of necessary repairs, including falling catwalks, broken windows and hanging gutters. The property is currently leased to tenants.

“PNC is informed and believes that the failure to make such repairs will result in Bel-Ridge’s refusal to issue occupancy permits,” PNC says in the suit. PNC asks the court to appoint a receiver to take over management of Springwood.

Calls to Gannon were not returned.

Wendi Alper-Pressman, an attorney representing PNC Bank, declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The lawsuit also alleges Gannon owes PNC $272,438 for a loan secured by Aspen Cove Townhomes in Ellisville, which has 78 units. Some of the apartment units have been converted to condominiums and are owned by parties not affiliated with the lawsuit. PNC alleges Gannon is in default on the loan and requested that the court appoint a receiver for the property to oversee leases and sales contracts.

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UnitedHealth Group says its first-quarter net income rose 13 percent, led by revenue gains in commercial health insurance. The managed care company also raised its full-year earnings forecast.

The Minnetonka, Minn., insurer says it earned $1.34 billion, or $1.22 per share, in the three months that ended March 31. That’s up from the $1.19 billion, or $1.03 per share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose 10 percent to $25.43 billion.

Analysts expected 89 cents per share on $24.97 billion in revenue.

UnitedHealth is the largest health insurer based on revenue and the first to report quarterly earnings.

The company now expects 2011 earnings per share to range between $3.95 and $4.05. That’s up from $3.50 to $3.70. Analysts have said the old outlook was conservative.

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Real estate site Zillow.com filed for a $51.75 million initial public offering Monday.

The Seattle-based company didn’t say in its Form S-1 filing how many shares it planned to sell, nor how it would price each share. However, it did say that Technology Crossover Ventures and PAR Investment Partners agreed to buy a total of $5.5 million of common stock directly from Zillow.

Zillow, founded in 2004, provides a database of more than 100 million U.S. homes for sale or rent, as well as homes not currently on the market.

In March, the site and mobile app together attracted 19.4 million unique users — a year-over-year gain of more than 90%.

Zillow’s revenue has grown significantly over the past three years, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing. In 2010, Zillow’s revenue jumped 74% to $30.5 million.

But the company has also booked net losses during that time, though those losses have been steadily narrowing. Zillow only lost $6.8 million last year, compared with $12.9 million in 2009 and $21.1 million in 2008.

Zillow’s IPO filing comes as the public offering market is starting to heat up. LinkedIn filed for an IPO in January and Demand Media went public the same month, while Pandora filed in February.

On Friday, Chinese social networking site Renren also filed for an IPO on the U.S. market. 

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Greece said it has no plans for a debt restructuring even as German officials openly discuss the possibility and investors charge a record amount to insure the country’s obligations.

“Restructuring is not an issue we’re discussing,” Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said in an April 16 interview in Washington. “The pain and the cost” of doing so would be greater than repaying lenders, he told reporters the same day.

Greece found support from International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as saying “further measures may have to be taken” if Greece fails a June audit. German Deputy Foreign Minister Werner Hoyer told Bloomberg News last week that restructuring “would not be a disaster.”

Traders are betting on a default. The cost of insuring Greek government debt rose to a record 1,155 basis points on April 15, according to CMA prices for credit-default swaps. The contracts indicate investors see about a 63 percent chance the nation will default within five years.

‘Rightly Nervous’

Restructuring would “create realized losses across the global banking system — but mainly in Europe,” David Zervos, head of global fixed-income strategy at Jefferies & Co. in New York, said in a note to clients on April 15. “Markets are rightly nervous.”

Greece’s aid program was designed on the assumption that the country would repay debt rather than restructure, and “nothing has changed,” Strauss-Kahn said as he hosted the IMF’s semi-annual meetings in the U.S. capital. Lagarde said April 14 at the same talks that “there is no discussion about debt restructuring, none whatsoever.”

The yield on 10-year Greek debt rose 55 basis points to 13.83 percent on April 15, widening the spread over German bunds to a record 1,045 basis points. The euro dropped from a 15-month high versus the dollar on concern of the first default by a euro-area country. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

“The issue of Greece is not whether there will be debt restructuring, but when it will be done, and whether it will be an orderly market-oriented debt exchange or disorderly like in Argentina,” Nouriel Roubini, the economist who predicted the global financial crisis, said at a conference in Kazakhstan on April 15.

Euro Partners

Greece has asked euro-area partners to consider rescheduling all of its debt, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter who weren’t identified. A finance ministry press officer in Athens, who declined to be identified citing government policy, denied the report.

Lucas Papademos, an adviser to Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and a former vice president of the European Central Bank, suggested April 9 that extending maturities of debt would be one option to consider after implementing measures attached to a 110 billion-euro loan package from the European Union and IMF.

Asked April 16 about the possibility, Papaconstantinou declined to comment directly. Rescheduling all debt and pushing back maturity of European loans is “not the same thing,” he said in Washington. “The official sector can choose to do so.”

‘No Need’

European Central Bank governing council member Ewald Nowotny said he sees “no need” for a restructuring by Greece. Such a step “would be very harmful and not efficient,” he said in an April 16 interview with Bloomberg News in Washington.

Questions over Greek finances are mounting while the country steps up efforts to reduce its budget deficit. Greece last week outlined 26 billion euros in cuts and 50 billion euros in asset sales.

The Wall Street Journal reported that IMF officials believe Greece’s debt burden is unsustainable and should be restructured. William Murray, an IMF spokesman, said yesterday that “there is absolutely no truth” to the story. Martin Kotthaus, a spokesman for Schaeuble, said there is “no basis” for a Financial Times report that German officials are considering a plan to let holders of Greek bonds swap them for safer securities guaranteed by euro-member countries.

Greece isn’t the only euro-area country relying on support from neighboring governments and the IMF. Officials are preparing a plan to support Portugal, and Ireland has also received a bailout.

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Officials in Ivory Coast are drawing up a list of ministers, generals and journalists to be charged with blood crimes, corruption and hate speech, the justice minister responsible for human rights told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Top of the list is Charles Ble Goude, youth minister in the disgraced government of arrested former President Laurent Gbagbo, who organized a violent anti-French and anti-U.N. gang that has terrorized foreigners and ordinary civilians.

On Friday, a government spokesman said Ble Goude had been arrested. But Justice Minister Jeannot Ahoussou said that was a case of mistaken identity.

Ble Goude is known as the “street general” for organizing the violent gang that terrorized Ivory Coast’s foreign population between 2004 and 2005. More recently he incited his Young Patriots, a militia-like gang of thugs, to attack foreigners as well as supporters of democratically elected President Alassane Ouattara.

Hundreds of people have been killed since Gbagbo refused to accept his defeat at November elections and turned heavy weapons on civilians. Pro-Ouattara fighters captured him Monday after U.N. and French forces bombed the presidential residence where he had taken refuge in a fortified underground bunker.

“We are investigating every member of the Cabinet of Mr. Gbagbo for blood crimes, money crimes, buying guns and other arms,” Ahoussou told the AP in a telephone interview.

He said he also was investigating journalists who broadcast hate speech. Gbagbo had turned the state Radio Television Ivoirienne into a propaganda organ that broadcast statements inciting violence against tribes loyal to Ouattara.

Former rebel forces that fought to install Ouattara also are accused of atrocities, including the slaughter of hundreds of civilians in western Ivory Coast, a stronghold of Gbagbo’s Bete tribe and allied Guere people.

Ouattara said this week that Gbagbo will be tried by both national and international courts for his alleged crimes. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has said it is conducting a preliminary examination into crimes perpetrated by all sides in the conflict in this West African nation.

The telephone line broke as a journalist was asking the minister whether he also would be investigating pro-Ouattara forces that perpetrated crimes. Telephone communications are poor throughout the country including in Abidjan, the commercial capital and seat of the government.

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For the second time in five years, public health advocates are calling on the Food and Drug Administration to ban a fat-blocking drug sold over-the counter and via prescription, pointing to new reports of kidney stones and pancreatic damage.

Public Citizen filed a petition with the FDA Thursday calling on the agency to remove GlaxoSmithKline’s Alli and Roche’s Xenical from the market. Alli is sold over-the-counter while Xenical, a higher dose of the drug, is only available with a doctor’s prescription.

Public Citizen says it identified 47 cases of acute pancreatitis and 73 kidney stones among patients taking the drugs. The reports were culled from the FDA’s public database of negative drug reactions.

Known chemically as orlistat, the drug works by blocking the absorption of about one-quarter of any fat consumed.

The drug has never been popular, in part due to for their unpleasant side effects, including oily, loose stools. Marketing materials for Alli stress the importance of keeping meals under 15 grams of fat to avoid oily stools. Educational pamphlets even recommend people start the program when they have a few days off work, or to bring an extra pair of pants to the office.

Annual sales of Alli have declined 42 percent to $84 million in 2010 since its initial launch in 2007 best payday advance. Prescriptions of Xenical have fallen to 110,000 last year from 2.6 million in fiscal year 2000, according to data from the FDA and IMS Health.

Last year the FDA added warnings to Xenical and Alli about rare reports of liver damage.

In light of the drug’s side effects and meager health benefit _ patients typically lose about 3 percent of their weight after a year _ Public Citizen says the drug should be removed from the market.

“Orlistat is a drug used to treat people who are either overweight or obese,” states the petition. “Unfortunately, it has little clinical effectiveness and has the potential to damage a number of organs, including the liver, pancreas, and kidneys.”

Public Citizen filed a similar petition to ban the drug in 2006, based on scientific studies linking it to precancerous lesions in rats. That petition only applied to the prescription version Xenical, which has been available in the U.S. since 1999.

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