Roundup: U.S. stocks rebound following global rallies

U.S. stocks shaved part of early gains to end mildly higher on Thursday, as investors cheered over an across-the-board stock increase around the world.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 33.20 points, or 0. 19 percent, to 17,548.62. The S&P 500 added 4.63 points, or 0.23 percent, to 2,051.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 12.64 points, or 0.26 percent, to 4,922.40.

Chinese stocks staged a strong rally on Thursday, recovering from a steep drop in the past three weeks, as the latest government prop-up measures have borne fruit.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rebounded 5.76 percent, the biggest daily rise in six years, to finish at 3,709.33 points.

European equities surged Thursday on hopes for Greece debt deal, with British benchmark FTSE 100 Index jumping 1.40 percent.

Greece's Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas said Thursday that a debt deal with lenders will be achieved by this weekend to avert a catastrophic default and a Greek exit from the European Union.

"I am confident and I believe that even a bad agreement will lead to better results than the lack of any agreement," Mardas told local media, while the finance ministry once again extended bank holidays and capital controls from June 29 to July 13.

The International Monetary Fund's chief economist Olivier Blanchard said at a press conference Thursday that Greece is a small part of the world economy, and its possible exit from the eurozone should have limited impact on the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, the IMF on Thursday downgraded its global economic growth projection to 3.3 percent for 2015 from 3.5 percent it forecasted in April.

The weaker-than-expected U.S. economy is the culprit of the lower projection, the fund said in its update of the World Economic Outlook, its biannual flagship report of the world economy.

On the domestic front, in the week ending July 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims in the U.S. was 297,000, an increase of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level, according to the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, increased 1.58 percent to end at 19.97 on Thursday.

In other markets, oil prices bounced as a recovery in Chinese stocks boosted investor sentiment.

The West Texas Intermediate for August delivery moved up 1.13 dollars to settle at 52.78 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for August delivery increased 1.56 dollars to close at 58.61 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Future Exchange.

The U.S. dollar climbed against the euro on Thursday as investors were awaiting the future developments in Greek debt crisis.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1013 dollars from 1.1069 dollars in the previous session, while the dollar bought 121.32 Japanese yen, higher than 120.64 yen of the previous session.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell after the release of the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting the previous month.

The most active gold contract for August delivery dropped 4.3 dollars, or 0.37 percent, to settle at 1,159.20 dollars per ounce. Endite