What a difference a few hours makes. Earlier today, we were in the process of seeing the stock market take out the lows of October. At that point the buyers ignored the 516,000 jobless claims from this morning and they started hitting their "buy" buttons on their keyboards. The gains came on strong in the afternoon, and most of them late in the afternoon. Here are the unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA: 8,835.25 (+6.67%)
NASDAQ: 1,596.70 (+6.50%)
S&P 500: 911.28 (+6.92%)

52-Week Lows
Top Upgrades & Downgrades

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) had been down all day on rumors and fears about the dividend status, but shares came back and ended up 4.3% at $16.87.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) closed up 6.7% at $14.43 despite the company's warning last night. While warnings are somewhat expected, this was a severe drop of about 15% to revenues.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) rose over 14% to $2.24 after the company announced that it was going to pursue employee buyouts for certain back office peronnel. Cutting costs seems to be popular in hard times, and buyouts do not create the unpleasantries inside an office like layoffs do.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) managed to beat earnings, but the company said that currency issues were making it take guidance slightly under the mid-point for next quarter. Shares closed up over 4% at $54.39.

Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) was up 9.5% at $16.66 right at the close today. Shares were down earlier after the company met earnings expectations, but strange options trades may have helped lift the stock.

Welcome to the 25th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

This past week, I discussed Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.'s (NYSE: WMT) unorthodox pricing scheme. Prices ending in $x.87 and $x.76 are common in Wal-Mart stores. In addition, the world's largest retailer rarely has "sales" in the general retail sense, opting instead for "everyday low prices" and "rollbacks" as its primary means of indicating to shoppers that Wal-Mart does indeed have "Always Low Prices."

Is that pricing strategy enough to keep the retailer growing every single year? Hard to say -- but a recent admission by the retailer that it is now selling non-protected digital music files for $0.94 is actually quite profound and may end up giving Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes music store a run for its money, iPod ecosystem or not. Read on.