It's about time. After its biggest loss of the year yesterday and five straight days of decline, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) is finally bouncing back this morning. The Dow is up nearly 1% in mid-morning trading as investors are reacting to a bit of good news out of Europe, as Spanish and Italian bond yields fell. It was much-needed positive news from Europe after a terrible day yesterday, in which yields for Spanish bond yields hit their highest level this year -- and Spanish stocks tumbled to their lowest mark in three years.

Also helping push the Dow higher are investors reacting to positive earnings from aluminum giant Alcoa (NYSE: AA) released after the closing bell yesterday. At the time of publication, its stock has surged more than 8%. Alcoa's aluminum is used in everything from cars to airplanes to Coke cans, and the company has long been considered an economic bellwether. Alcoa reported a surprise first-quarter profit of $0.09 per share, significantly higher than the $0.04 per share loss that analysts were expecting. The company cited growth in all global end markets, and reaffirmed its forecast that global aluminum demand will grow at a 7% clip in 2012.

Alcoa's solid earnings are also pushing shares of aerospace giant Boeing (NYSE: BA) up more than 2% this morning. Alcoa raised its forecast for aerospace demand this year by 3 percentage points, and it should be a major beneficiary of what Boeing estimates is a $4 trillion global aerospace market through 2030.

Predictably, some of the companies most sensitive to the overall economy are surging this morning as well. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), which lost more than 10% in the past five days, has gained 3% of that loss back so far in mid-morning trading.

Outside of the Dow, tech giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) was dealt some bad news this morning when the U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company and five of the country's largest publishers, claiming the companies colluded to fix the prices of e-books. But, not even a lawsuit by the U.S. government seems to be able to slow down Apple's remarkable stock price appreciation. Apple's stock has gained nearly 1% in mid-morning trading.

The big picture
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