In New York Thursday, a slight decline in oil prices following the weekly inventory report, an upward revision in first quarter GDP and a positive report from MasterCard boosted investor sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average recently gained 70 points to 12665 or 0.56%. The S&P 500 added 9 points, or 0.64%, to 1400, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 21 points, or 0.83%, to 2507.
MasterCard shares rose 8.91% after the credit card company said it expects profits to be better than expected on increasing usage of its credit and debit cards.
US oil inventories of crude oil and gasoline fell last week but the price of crude stayed in a narrow range.
US GDP grew at annual 0.9% rate in the first quarter revised up from 0.6%
The number of US workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week indicating continued labour market weakness, after four-straight declines in monthly employment to start the year.
Continuing claims lasting more than one week stayed above three million for a fifth-straight week and hit a fresh four-year high, suggesting it is taking even longer for the unemployed to find new work.
Initial claims for jobless benefits rose 4,000 to 372,000 after seasonal adjustments in the week ended May 24, the Labor Department said Thursday.
JPMorgan Chase completed its historic bid for Bear Stearns Thursday. After an initial $2 a share offering - more than 90% below its closing price before the takeover was announced - to rescue the embattled investment bank in March, JPMorgan raised its bid to roughly $10 a share, placing its all-stock bid at about $2.2 billion.
Last week, JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon confirmed that his firm would retain only 45% of the 14,000 individuals employed at Bear Stearns. The deal is expected to generate roughly $1 billion in after-tax earnings for JPMorgan by 2009
Live US Indices
In Europe, the Dow Jones 600 rose 0.3% on Thursday.
National benchmarks rose in 11 of the 18 western European markets. France's CAC 40 gained 0.1: the UK's FTSE 100 was little changed, while Germany's DAX added 0.4%.
In Dublin, the ISEQ fell 0.37%.
Ryanair fell over 4%.
Denis O'Brien today informed Independent News & Media plc that he holds 196,196,848 ordinary shares of e0.30 which represents 23.6108% of the total number of voting shares
INM shares rose 1.01%.
National benchmarks - Europe
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Currencies
The euro is trading at $1.5530 and £0.7861.
For live currency updates, check the right-hand column of the Finfacts home page.
Commodites
Crude oil for July delivery traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) at $130.62 per barrel - down 41 cents from Wednesday's close.
