NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Upbeat earnings forecasts from a pair of heavyweight companies gave a boost to stocks early Thursday, giving investors confidence about the quarterly reporting period, which is about to begin.
After five minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average (up 27.19 to 10556.22, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 (up 1.33 to 1127.66, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (up 7.86 to 2085.54, Charts) all edged higher.
Finland's Nokia (NOK: up $2.28 to $20.25, Research, Estimates) said early Thursday that revenue and earnings per share in the fourth-quarter will top its previous forecast due to strong demand for its products.
Late Wednesday, Dow component Procter & Gamble (PG: up $0.96 to $99.06, Research, Estimates) also raised its quarterly earnings forecast, saying the early flu season has been helping drug sales.
Wall Street is betting that fourth-quarter earnings will show marked improvement from a year earlier, and therefore justify and sustain the recent huge stock rally.
Dow component Alcoa (AA: up $0.41 to $38.61, Research, Estimates) will kick off the earnings reporting period after the bell Thursday.
The upbeat corporate news offered a distraction from the slightly disappointing weekly jobless claims count, which showed a rise last week from the previous week that was a bit bigger than what economists were expecting.
Of greater interest to investors this week will be Friday's December jobs report. Economists forecast employers added nearly 100,000 jobs to their payrolls last month.
Treasury prices declined, sending the 10-year note's yield up to 4.26 percent from 4.24 percent late Wednesday. The dollar was mixed versus the euro and yen.
Brent crude oil futures rose 5 cents to $30.57 a barrel in London. COMEX gold gained $2.40 to $424.70 an ounce.
Asian stocks closed in mixed trade Thursday. European bourses gained at midday.
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