Shares on Wall Street were advancing Thursday as investors hailed macro data and a clutch of corporate earnings.
One of them was Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, which rallied over 6%, bolstering the S&P 500 index as it posted better than expected fourth quarter profit.
The TV and film company has been in focus this week as it scrapped its US$80bn bid for Time Warner.
It had approached with a US$85 per share cash and share offer three weeks ago, but this was rejected, since when Fox’s share price has fallen by more than 10%
It was reported that Time Warner’s directors would only entertain a bid of US$100 per share or more and predominately in cash.
17 members of S&P are reporting today. So far around 75% of companies, which have posted earnings have beaten analysts' estimates.
Also up today was Transocean- the offshore drilling group, whose Q2 earnings surpassed expectations.
Also boying investor sentiment is a report about weekly jobless claims, which showed a bigger-than-expected drop.
The benchmark Dow added 52 points today to 16,503, while the Nasdaq is up 23 at 4,377.
The S&P 500 gained seven to trade at 1,927.
Meanwhile in London, UK shares are down 2.54 with Footsie at 6,633.