Here we go - Some light at the end of the tunnel

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Dow Jones industrials are back above 9,000 for the first time since the beginning of January. Investors snapped up stocks across the market Thursday, sending major indexes up more than 2 percent, after a report showed existing home sales jumped for the third straight month in June. The 3.6-percent increase in home sales has investors excited that the hard-hit housing market might be improving. The National Association of Realtors said sales came in at 4.89 million, above the 4.84 million analysts had been expecting.

- DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Helped by a lightened debt load, Ford Motor Co. posted a surprise second-quarter profit of $2.3 billion Thursday, following the worst loss in company history a year earlier. Shares rose 10 percent in afternoon trading. The net profit ends a string of four straight quarterly losses for the nation's second-largest automaker, which has gained U.S. market share at the expense of crosstown rivals Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co., both of which spent time under bankruptcy court supervision. Ford last went into the black in the first quarter of 2008, with net profit of $70 million. However, excluding its debt reduction and other items, Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford would have reported a quarterly loss, though smaller than Wall Street expected.

- WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. housing market has started to recover from the most far-reaching crisis since the Great Depression, data released Thursday show. Sales of previously occupied homes rose for the third month in a row in June, the National Association of Realtors reported. That hasn't happened since early 2004, during the boom. "The turnaround in the housing market appears finally to be here and indeed may be gaining some speed," wrote Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc.

- NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices were pulled higher Thursday by a rally on Wall Street and a rise in home sales that suggested the U.S. may soon regain its appetite for energy.
Benchmark crude for September delivery added $1.15 to $66.54 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent prices rose $1 to $68.21 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Oil prices lifted in morning trading as the Dow Jones industrial average rose above 9,000 mark. The last time the blue chips closed above that was on Jan. 6. Investors also cheered a National Association of Realtors report that said sales of previously occupied homes rose for the third month in a row. The last time that happened was in the middle of the housing boom in early 2004.