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• After Hours Most Active for May 17, 2013 : QQQ, PSEC, MU, ABX, FB, PFE, SIRI, MSFT, BAC, GE, HCN, P
• Pre-Market Most Active for May 10, 2013 : DELL, DDD, APO, NOK, BAC, ING, NVS, PTIE, DNDN, NVDA, ERIC, MU
• Market Close Report: NASDAQ Composite index closes at 3,409.17 down -4.10 points

• MU 88% Rate It
• RHT 85% Rate It

Good news in the job markets - particularly from the technology sector - helped push up stocks across the board on Thursday, with the Nasdaq climbing over 1.25 percent by 2:30 p.m. EST. Leading the tech sector were Micron ( MU ), a U.S.-based chip maker, and Red Hat ( RHT ), which sells Linux operating system software.

In addition, the Department of Labor reported that initial unemployment claims for the week ending on March 19 fell by 5,000 to 382,000, bringing the four-week average down to a low of 385,250 claims. That's the lowest level for the unemployment gauge since the summer of 2008.

Across the pond, however, the news was a bit bleaker, as Portugal slid closer to seeking a bailout from the European Union. Its prime minister, José Sócrates, resigned after the government failed to move forward with fresh austerity efforts to contain the country's desperate financial situation.

Portugal is the last of the E.U. nations which investors realistically expect to get bailouts. Though the situation in Spain is also dire - and Italy could find itself in trouble as well - both countries are simply too large to get through their issues with an infusion of cash from the rest of Europe.

However, European investors were able to shrug off any fears about the Portugal situation and European indices rose as well, as global investor sentiment begins to recover from the blow it was dealt in the wake of Japan's earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and nuclear crisis.

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