Dow Closes Above 10,000

(Updated with closing stock prices.)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The Dow recaptured 10,000, and then some, as stocks rallied Wednesday on better-than-expected earnings from Intel(INTC) and JPMorgan Chase(JPM).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 144.80 points, or 1.47%, to 10,015.86, topping the10,000 mark -- a level it hadn't seen since Oct. 3, 2008.

The S&P 500 added 18.83 points, or 1.75%, to 1092.02, and the Nasdaq Composite edged up 32.34 points, or 1.51%, to 2172.23.

Stock Wrap: The Real Story, October 14

"It seems like we have dealt with the Dow 10,000 hurdle a hundred times in the past decade," writes James DePorre, CEO of Shark Asset Management and a RealMoney.com contributor. "It is such an obvious psychological level that the media can easily use in headlines so we are going to see it all the time. But I don't think it has ever been a really important technical level."

The Dow's Long Climb Back

It is a psychological level, agrees Anu Sharma, managing director of the Nasdaq market intelligence desk. "There really is nothing on the technical side, but we haven't been at 10,000 since October of 2008, when everything hit the fan. So to get back to a level that is at or above where we had the debacle last year, it's a big psychological uplift for everyone.

"Even though it started in September when we broke 11,000, when we broke 10,000 [in October] we really had a downward spiral -- it represents the collapse," he says.

Wall Street cheered as JPMorgan reported earning of 82 cents a share, well above expectations for 52 cents a share, sending shares more than 3% higher. Earnings were driven by its investment banking results, while it added $2 billion of reserves to cover potential loan losses, especially in the consumer lending and card services portfolios. CEO Jamie Dimon said they are unsure trends toward consumer credit stability will continue.

Intel(INTC) and CSX(CSX) were trading up 3% and 5%, respectively, after topping expectations late Tuesday, helping to alleviate investor anxiety after a mixed report from Johnson & Johnson(JNJ).

The larger question than whether the Dow would revisit 10,000 is whether earnings improvements are due to better revenue or because of cost-cutting, says Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates.