North American stocks rose at the start of trading on Thursday, boosted by a tame reading on initial jobless claims and upbeat earnings.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 76 points or 0.7 per cent, to 10,574. The broader S&P 500 rose 8 points or 0.7 per cent, to 1114. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index rose 62 points or 0.5 per cent, to 11,747.
Big-name energy producers that reported their second quarter results moved higher, even as the price of crude oil dipped slightly. Exxon Mobil Corp. rose 1.1 per cent and Suncor Energy Inc. rose 2.1 per cent.
Meanwhile, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. rose 1.8 per cent after the fertilizer producer reported its quarterly results. Barrick Gold Corp. rose 0.8 per cent.
Thomson Reuters Corp. was a notable exception on the earnings front: The electronic publisher fell 1.9 per cent after it reported net earnings that beat analysts' expectations. However, revenues during the second quarter fell shy of expectations.
Manulife Financial Corp. rose 3.4 per cent, with Desjardins Securities noting that the July rally in the stock market likely added about 21 cents a share to the life insurer's third quarter earnings.
David Berman