3 Stocks Joining the Dow's Surge

Investors are cheering bad news today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI  ) rising 0.75% in recent trading despite another batch of negative economic data this morning. Specifically, numbers on initial jobless claims for the last week rose, and to make matters worse, the previous week's numbers were revised higher. Certainly not the kind of numbers policymakers want to see following a tick higher in the May unemployment rate earlier this month. Combine this poor labor data with lower consumer prices and the argument for additional economic stimulus appears to have strengthened considerably, fueling today's rally.

Around the Dow
Moving to individual stocks, below are the three top-performing Dow components on the day as of about 3:30 p.m. EDT.

Company	Gain/Loss	Gain/Loss %	Price
Home Depot (NYSE: HD  )	1.24	2.4%	52.21
Disney (NYSE: DIS  )	0.80	1.7%	47.03
Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO  )	0.22	1.3%	16.88

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

While there doesn't appear to be any specific company news impacting shares, Disney and Home Depot continue their respective outperformance versus the Dow, with both company's shares up around 25% year to date versus a 4% gain for the broader index. Shares of Cisco Systems have treaded water since it provided disappointing guidance with its last earnings report, and are down nearly 16% over the past three months.

Economic data is also moving exchange-traded fund United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG  ) , with shares up over 13% following readings on natural gas inventory levels, which rose only 67 billion cubic feet versus analyst expectations of 80. The ETF attempts to track movements in natural gas prices, and while still down about 33% year to date, has risen more than 9% on the week.

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