NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Better than expected reports on weekly joblessness and durable goods orders gave U.S. stocks some reason to advance early Thursday, countering pressure to cash in some of the previous session's gains.

Around 9:40 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq composite gained 3.90 to 1,226.19. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 33.23 to 7,875.05.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment dropped unexpectedly to 406,000 last week from a revised 430,000 the previous week, a five-week low. Jobless claims have been on the upside of late and economists surveyed by Briefing.com were only expecting a minor decline to 420,000.

In addition, durable goods orders fell 0.6 percent in August, when economists expected a 3.4 percent drop. In July, orders rose a downwardly revised 8.6 percent.

In corporate news, Merrill Lynch reiterated its "buy" rating on Dell Computer (DELL: up $0.50 to $25.38, Research, Estimates), saying that although the market remains difficult, the company looks to be tracking on plan and should meet its estimates of third-quarter earnings per share of 21 cents on revenue of $8.9 billion.

Lehman Bros. cut its third-quarter earnings per share estimates on financial services firm J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM: up $0.14 to $19.03, Research, Estimates), a Dow component, saying that the first set of cuts it made were not drastic enough. The firm cut third-quarter earnings per share estimates to 9 cents from 38 cents and also trimmed 2002 and 2003 estimates and its price target, citing lower trading results than initially expected and an absence of heavy investment securities gains.

European markets rose at midday, while Asian-Pacific stocks finished higher Thursday, with Tokyo's Nikkei index up 1.7 percent.

Treasury prices fell on the economic data, sending the 10-year note yield up to 3.76 percent. The dollar edged higher against the yen, but was weaker versus the euro. Brent oil futures gained 10 cents to $29.16 a barrel in London.