Wall Street opened moderately higher Thursday, as investors digested several earnings reports beating estimates.
Strong sales of the iPhone helped Apple Inc. lift its quarterly profit by 15 percent, well ahead of Wall Street's expectations despite the global economic downturn. Defense contractor Raytheon Co. raised its full-year earnings forecast. PNC Financial Services' first-quarter profit of 1.03 dollars a share was well ahead of the 42 cents analysts had expected.
However, earnings from UPS Inc., the world's largest shipping carrier, fell short of expectations.
New U.S. jobless claims rising more than expected last week limited the advance of major indexes. The U.S. Labor Department says initial claims for unemployment compensation rose to a seasonally adjusted 640,000, up from a revised 613,000 the previous week. That was slightly above analysts' expectations of 635,000. Meanwhile, the number of people claiming benefits for more than a week set a record for the 12th straight week.
The Dow Jones rose 21.66 to 7,908.23. Broader indexes also moved higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index climbed 4.00 to 847.55; and the Nasdaq advanced 5.10 to 1,651.22.
Source: Xinhua
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