Microsoft, Bank of America, American Express: Dow Movers

Breadth within the Dow was positive with 29 of the index's 30 companies posting gains.

Author:: Alexandra Zendrian
Publish date:: Feb 16, 2012 4:54 PM EST

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Stocks finished Thursday on a positive note with buyers emboldened by

better-than-expected U.S. economic data

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

rose 123.13 points, or 0.96%, to 12,904.08. The

S&P 500

increased 14.82 points to 1,358.05 and the

Nasdaq Composite

rose 44.02 points to 2,959.85.

Breadth within the Dow was positive with 29 of the index's 30 components posting gains.

Kraft Foods

(KFT)

was the only stock to post a decline with a loss of 5 cents to $38.24.

The biggest percentage gainers among the blue chips were

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

and

American Express

(AXP) - Get Report

Shares of Microsoft rose 4.11% to $31.28. The software giant announced the launch of msnNOW Thursday, which combines information from Facebook, Bing, Twitter and BreakingNews.com in one place.

TheStreet Ratings

gives Microsoft an A grade with a

$35.54

price target on the shares.

Bank of America shares increased 3.98% to $8.09. The stock rose despite news that

Moody's

is looking to potentially downgrade the bank's credit rating. Bank of America

wasn't likely surprised

by this information though.

"For the past two years, the big banks/brokers have been repositioning their funding activities in advance of these potential rating agencies' adverse actions," wrote CreditSights analysts in a report Monday warning about the downgrades.

Bank of America gets a

D+ grade

from

TheStreet Ratings

and a sell rating.

Shares of American Express rose 2.62% to $52.87.

TheStreet Ratings

gives American Express an A grade and has a

$63.87

price target on the shares.

Other blue chips that posted gains of more than 1% on Thursday were:

Alcoa