Buyers bought stocks Thursday, despite a relatively sour mix of data and earnings reports. Wal-Mart (WMT) reported flat earnings for the previous quarter. The Department of Labor announced a 32,000 increase in weekly jobless claims. However, opportunistic investors bought stocks that had been sold off during the previous two sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 46 to close at 8331. For a complete rundown of Thursday s trading session see our market story.

Winners

The SPDR KBW Insurance (KIE) fund climbed 5.2% as financials rallied. The SPDR Financial Select Sector fund (XLF) rose 3.3%.

Losers

Another big swing dealt a blow to the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures (VXX) exchange traded notes, which lost 4.2%. The rally in financials hit investors in the leveraged Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) fund, which decreased 9.2% -- among the largest losses incurred Wednesday by exchange-traded funds.

Thursday's Industry Headlines

Data Point
Van Eck Global launched the Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap fund (BRF) Thursday. Its underlying index skews away from the usual heavy concentration in mining and energy stocks, and will invest in sectors that include household durables, food products and specialty retail. It has an annual expense ratio of 0.73%.

Friday s Notebook

Earnings and Conference Calls
Abercrombie & Fitch, Atlantic Power, Chaparral Energy, Craft Brewers Alliance, Data Service, Easton-Bell Sports, First Data, JCPenney, Nielsen

Economic Data
8:30 a.m. April Consumer Price Index
8:30 a.m. March Consumer Price Index, ex-food energy
8:30 a.m. April Empire State Fed Manufacturing Survey
9:00 a.m. February Treasury International Capital
9:15 a.m. March Industrial Production
9:15 a.m. March Capacity Utilization
10:00 a.m. Mid-May Reuters/Univ. of Michigan Sentiment Index

A look at how the industry's most popular ETFs did on Thursday: