NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks jumped at the open Thursday, as investors welcomed upbeat earnings from At&T, Caterpillar and a host of other Dow components.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 36.02 to 10,745.76, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 index (up 8.10 to 1,272.78, Charts) and the Nasdaq composite (up 15.55 to 2,276.20, Charts) all gained soundly in the early going.

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Stocks ended a bit lower Wednesday, following a surge in Treasury yields and some mixed earnings. However, the tone was more positive Thursday.

The upbeat mood enabled investors to set aside rising oil prices, more high bond yields, and disappointing results from General Motors.

Dow components AT&T (up $0.18 to $25.39, Research), Honeywell (unchanged at $36.06, Research) and Caterpillar (up $1.23 to $63.30, Research) all reported quarterly earnings Thursday morning that rose from a year ago and surpassed Wall Street's forecasts.

Dow stock Verizon (up $0.31 to $31.69, Research) reported quarterly earnings that fell from a year earlier, but were nonetheless in line with estimates.

All four stocks rose at the open.

The fifth Dow company to report was General Motors (down $1.35 to $22.50, Research). The automaker reported a loss of $4.8 billion in the quarter, down from a year earlier and far worse than what analysts were expecting. (Full story.) Shares fell more than 3 percent in the morning.

U.S. light crude oil for March delivery rose 15 cents to $66 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the 10-year note to about 4.50 percent from 4.47 percent late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar was little changed versus the euro and yen.

COMEX gold slipped $6.40 to $556.10 an ounce.

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