US stocks rally, Alibaba +7.5%

US stocks pushed higher Thursday as oil prices cooled and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba soared on strong sales.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 17,925.50, up 83.52 points (0.47 percent).

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 7.90 (0.38 percent) at 2,088.05, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 25.90 (0.53 percent) to 4,945.54.

US crude prices fell back below $60 a barrel Thursday. Spiking oil prices contributed to a 1.6 percent loss in the S&P 500 in the prior two sessions.

Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities, said a drop in US Treasury bond yields also eased worries.

"If you look at some of the turmoil you saw in the market during the last few days, a couple of factors have settled down," Hogan said.

Alibaba jumped 7.5 percent as sales rose 45 percent to $2.81 billion. The company named chief operating officer Daniel Zhang as chief executive, replacing Jonathan Lu.

Yahoo, which has a stake in Alibaba, rose 5.2 percent.