U.S. stocks trade higher amid earnings reports, economic data

U.S. stocks traded higher around midday Thursday as investors pondered over a batch of quarterly earnings results amid economic data.

At noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20.62 points, or 0.11 percent, to 18,219.95. The S&P 500 edged up 1.61 point, or 0.08 percent, to 2,141.04. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 10.27 points, or 0.20 percent, to 5,260.54.

United Parcel Service (UPS) Inc. said on Thursday that it earned 1.27 billion U.S. dollars in third quarter, up 1 percent from a year earlier, while its revenue rose 4.9 percent to 14.93 billion U.S. dollars, beating Wall Street expectations.

Corporate earnings have done well relative to market consensus. According to report from The Earnings Scout, 39 percent of S&P 500 components had posted results as of Wednesday morning, with 76 percent beating earnings estimates and 62 percent topping sales expectations.

On the economic front, in the week ending October 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 258,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

The latest reading was higher than market consensus of 255,000.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday that new orders for U.S. manufactured capital goods unexpectedly fell 1.2 percent in September after three straight months of strong gains.

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks closed mixed as investors pondered over a batch of quarterly earnings results amid economic data. Enditem