Consumer sentiment climbed to a six month high to lift the markets to a sharply higher close with the Dow leaping 186 points to 12,184. Nasdaq surged 50 points to 2646.

On the upside

Shares of McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) continued climbing after reporting on Wednesday that advertising revenue was recovering.   

Flow International (Nasdaq: FLOW) reversed year ago losses to post a better than expected profit for the second quarter. 

GMX Resources (NYSE: GMXR) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.578125 per share of its Series B cumulative preferred stock payable on December 30, 2011 to shareholders of record December 20, 2011.

On the downside

The lock-up period for Pandora (NYSE: P) will expire on Sunday, December 11. 

Investors locked in profits on E-Commerce China Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), whose stock price soared yesterday after the company announced that it will introduce its own e-book reader at the end of the month. 

Pacific Ethanol (Nasdaq: PEIX) will sell $8 million worth of stock through a private placement.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 6 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 9 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks soared 22 points to 745.