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The economy grew slightly faster in the spring than previously estimated but remained dangerously weak in the face of high unemployment and higher gas prices. Many economists foresee slightly better growth in the current July-September quarter. The annual growth rate was 1.3 percent in the April-June quarter, up from an estimate of 1 percent made a month ago, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The improvement reflected modestly more consumer spending and a bigger boost from trade.

Stocks rose on Thursday after U.S. economic data came in stronger than forecast and Germany's lower house approved new powers for the euro zone's crisis fund.

New claims for unemployment benefits dropped sharply in the latest week, The Labor Department said Thursday, giving the jobs market one of its first positive signals in some time. 

Stocks rallied Monday as investors bet that European finance ministers would take action soon to prop up the region's unstable economies.

Ford's market analyst said U.S. auto sales are running at the strongest pace since April as vehicle inventories recover for Toyota and Honda.

Americans filed fewer new claims for jobless benefits last week, data showed on Thursday, offering a glimmer of hope for the beleaguered labor market.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, the American hikers jailed in Iran on spying charges since 2009, were freed from prison Wednesday and flown to Oman for a joyful reunion with family members. “We’re so happy we are free,” Fattal told reporters at Muscat International Airport in Oman. The 29-year-old Californians and a companion, Sarah Shourd, were arrested in the mountainous region between Iraq and Iran for supposedly crossing the border; their detention further frayed diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran.

Young adults, long the group most likely to be uninsured, are gaining health coverage faster than expected since the 2010 health law began allowing parents to cover them as dependents on family policies. Three new surveys, including two released on Wednesday, show that adults under 26 made significant and unique gains in insurance coverage in 2010 and the first half of 2011. One of them, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimates that in the first quarter of 2011 there were 900,000 fewer uninsured adults in the 19-to-25 age bracket than in 2010.

Bottom Line: Stocks rose in mid-morning trade on Wall Street Tuesday as investors grew more optimistic that the Federal Reserve would announce new moves to stimulate the economy.

Iran's foreign minister says the courts are willing "in near future" to commute the prison sentences for two jailed Americans convicted for spying. Ali Akbar Salehi says Iran's judiciary was ready to cancel the sentences as a gesture of Islamic mercy. But he did not give any clearer indication on when the two men could be released.