Stocks resume advance

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks continued climbing at the start of trading Thursday, following up on the prior session's late-day surge.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which rallied 600 points late in Wednesday's session, started 0.2 percent higher. The Nasdaq composite index gained 0.6 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was 0.1 percent higher.

Late Wednesday, eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) reported fourth-quarter results that topped Wall Street's estimates. But the company's forecast for the current quarter and rest of the year disappointed investors, sending shares down 5 percent in after-hours trading. The company also announced the retirement of CEO Meg Whitman, a move that had been expected.

But there was good earnings news from the financial sector as credit card issuer Capital One Financial (COF, Fortune 500) posted earnings excluding special items that topped forecasts, even as it was hit by by rising losses on credit card loans and charges from closing its GreenPoint Mortgage business. Shares climbed 4 percent in after-hours trading.

Other quarterly results out early Thursday included AT&T (T, Fortune 500), Ford (F, Fortune 500), Nokia (NOK) and Lennar (LEN, Fortune 500).

The earnings deluge continues after the bell Thursday, with results from software giant Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) as well as biotech Amgen and battered online broker E*Trade (ETFC).

Recession fears have hammered stocks this month, although the major gauges managed to charge ahead Wednesday. Stocks rallied, lifted in part by talk of a plan to bail out troubled bond insurers.

In global trade, most Asian markets rose for a second session, although Hong Kong stocks finished sharply lower. European markets surged, even after French bank Societe Generale said it had discovered a $7 billion fraud caused by a single trader. It also reported nearly $3 billion in losses on U.S. subprime mortgage investments. Trading in France's No. 2 bank was suspended in Paris with shares off 4 percent.