us stocks closed sharply higher on thursday with the dow finishing at its highest level in about two months a day before a flurry of banks are due to report quarterly earnings the dow jones industrial average djia rose about 383 points or 11 ending near 34030 its highest close since feb 14 according to factset data the sp 500 index spx jumped 13 and the nasdaq composite index finished up 2 there were more signs of easing inflation pressures on thursday reinforcing the downward trend seen earlier in the week with a cooling consumerprice index for march investors have been hoping the federal reserve