NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stocks climbed Thursday as the dust settled in two troubled regions: Ukraine and Russia agreed to a cease-fire, while deliberations over Greece's debt were put on pause. The geopolitical news served to boost equities, even as U.S. jobless claims and retail sales disappointed. The S&P 500 rose 0.47%, touching a 2015 high, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.26%. The Nasdaq gained 0.63% to 4,837, its highest level since March 2000. STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. Russian President Vladimir Putin said a cease-fire would go into effect Feb. 15 and would replace a failed September agreement. Russia reached an agreement after a 17-hour meeting between Ukraine, France and Germany. The International Monetary Fund also has agreed to provide Ukraine a $17.5 billion bailout package to rehabilitate its economy. Despite no deal on Greece yet, European markets were surging as eurozone finance ministers pushed a decision on the country's bailout package until Feb. 16. Greece will meet eurozone leaders again on Monday to push for reforms to its current package. Germany's DAX was up 1.6%, France's CAC 40 climbed 1.2%, and the FTSE 100 in London added 0.2%. The Athens Stock Exchange climbed 4.3%. The U.S. consumer continued to pocket savings from lower gasoline prices in January, rather than spend as economists had hoped. Retail sales in January fell 0.8%, double the decline economists had forecast. Excluding auto and gas sales, retail sales increased 0.2%, though still came in short of an estimated 0.4% increase. Some remain optimistic the positive conditions will fuel retail sales in coming months, however. "All the conditions are in place for a period of very strong consumption growth (massive employment gains, rising hourly wages, high consumer confidence, lower gasoline prices). We still expect to see that strength come through in the retail sales data soon," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. Jobless claims for the week ended Feb. 6, increased 25,000 to 304,000. Economists had expected the number of new claims for unemployment benefits to increase to 287,000. Seeing even more volatility, crude oil rallied on Thursday after dropping around 7% over the past two days. Analysts have been uncertain the commodity had found a bottom as U.S. inventories continued to grow. West Texas Intermediate was up 2.3% to $49.97 a barrel. Expedia agreed to buy Orbitz Worldwide for $12 a share, or $1.6 billion, a 25% premium over Wednesday's close. Shares of Expedia added 16.1%, while Orbitz surged 21.1%. Rival TripAdvisor was up 21.7% despite missing quarterly profits expectations. Revenue of $288 million did beat forecasts and surged 35.2% year over year. American Express shares were being punished after Costco said it would stop accepting AmEx cards in April next year after the companies failed to renew a contract. Shares of AmEx plummeted 6.2%. Cisco added 8.1% following a quarterly beat on the top- and bottom-line after five quarters of declining profits. The tech company reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of 53 cents a share, 2 cents better than expected, while revenue of nearly $12 billion jumped 7%. Tesla plummeted 6.8% after reporting an adjusted loss of 13 cents a share, far below analysts' estimates. The automaker has been suffering problems in production and profits were hurt by a strong dollar. Whole Foods Market jumped nearly 6% after first-quarter comparable-store sales increased 4.5%. The green grocer reiterated full-year sales guidance of 9% growth. Kellogg was falling after missing fourth-quarter profit estimates and reporting a 5% decline in sales. The cereals company guided for long-term revenue growth between 1% and 3%, below a previous target as high as 4%. Shares dropped 3.1%. Rio Tinto added 2.4% after announcing a $2 billion buyback. The iron ore producer also reported an increase in full-year profits to $6.5 billion from $3.67 billion, despite a drop in revenue on weakening commodity prices. More gains for Apple after activist investor Carl Icahn said the stock should be trading at $216 a share, nearly double its current price. The price target would value the company at $1.3 trillion. Apple had already broken records as the largest company in the world after hitting a market cap of $700 billion. Shares added 1.2%. STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. --Written by Keris Alison Lahiff in New York.
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