NEW YORK — Stocks bounded higher Thursday thanks to a jump in manufacturing activity and growing confidence that Ireland will resolve its debt crisis. Most eyes were glued on General Motors, an American icon which re-emerged from bankruptcy in the second-largest initial public offering in history. Its shares, trading under the ticker GM, rose 3.6 percent to $34.19.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 173.35, or 1.6 percent, to close at 11,181.23. The Standard and Poor’s 500 index rose 18.10, or 1.5 percent, to 1,196.69. The technology-focused Nasdaq composite index rose 38.39, or 1.6 percent, to close at 2,514.40.

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