News Summary: Stock market ends choppy day higher

LOOKING UP: The stock market broke a two-day losing streak as traders reacted to news from Europe and looked ahead to the government's monthly employment report.

BIG MISS: VeriFone Systems plunged 21 percent. After the market closed Wednesday, the provider of terminals for credit-card payments reported quarterly results that fell short of financial analysts' estimates. VeriFone also forecast earnings of 20 cents in the current quarter, half of what analysts had forecast.

FINAL SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average rose 80.03, or 0.5 percent, to 15,040.62. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13.66, or 0.9 percent, to 1,622.56.