Great day for L.A. stocks

There's nothing like a steep drop in oil prices and a strong showing by McDonald's to get Wall Street excited. The Dow was up 101 points today, or 0.89 percent. But a bunch of Los Angeles-area companies did far better on a percentage basis, with several up four, five and even six percent (that's very unusual for the Socal stocks). There's not much secret to their success - if gas prices drop, it frees up more spending money for consumers. And consumer spending makes up 70 percent of the economy. Actually, one of the few local issues to fall today - though not by much - was L.A.-based Occidental Petroleum - no doubt influenced by oil prices that are under $64 a barrel. For many others, though, today was a good day.

Activision +5.14%
Cheesecake Factory +6.33%
Countrywide Financial +4.24% (this one probably related to news that Angelo Mozilo will stay on as CEO).
California Pizza Kitchen +4.39%
Gemstar +5.68%
Guess +4.63%
Hot Topic +5.51%
KB Home +6.84%
99 Cents +5.93%
CB Richard Ellis +5.58%