Investing.com - Stocks in New York started the month slightly higher Thursday, as reasonably good earnings reports and strength in global markets helped sentiment.
The Dow rose 50.59, or 0.2%, to 25,166.35, while the broader S&P 500 index rose 2.26, or 0.08%, to 2,714.00. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 9.76, or 0.13%, to 7,315.66.
Few could blame Wall Street for being cautious today, though, after managing to end an October of brutal selling on a positive note yesterday.
And investors will likely want to keep powder dry ahead of two major market events: Apple’s earnings after the bell today and the monthly employment report coming tomorrow.
Leading up to nonfarm payrolls, the latest figures on weekly initial jobless claims out earlier arrived about in line with expectations with a small drop to 214,000.
Meanwhile, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was down about 0.6% in early trading. On average, analysts expect the company to post a profit of $2.78 per share on revenue of about $61.4 billion.
Among other tech stocks that rebounded yesterday, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was off about 0.6%, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) lost about 0.6% and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) gained about 0.8%.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were down about 0.2%. Employees at the company’s offices around the globe are planning brief midday walkout to protest inequality and workplace harassment.
In earnings news, health insurer Cigna (NYSE:CI) reported better-than-expected profit and revenue. Shares rose 0.3%.
Shares of DowDuPont (NYSE:DWDP) rose 6.5% after the agriculture and materials sciences company reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations and announced a new $3 billion stock repurchase program.
And Teva Pharma (NYSE:TEVA) shares gained 8% after the company reported third-quarter profit and revenue beats and raised its 2018 outlook. Teva's revenue from other activities also came in above the consensus.
Stocks were mostly stronger in Europe, but off earlier highs. Germany’s DAX rose 0.4%, while in France the CAC 40 decreased 0.1% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 0.3%.