NEW YORK, April 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded higher on Thursday, as earnings season continued.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 100.44 points, or 0.49 percent, to 20,504.93. The S&P 500 rose 10.48 points, or 0.45 percent, to 2,348.65. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 32.07 points, or 0.55 percent, to 5,895.11.
Shares of American Express rallied over 4 percent around midday Thursday, after it reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings.
After Wednesday's closing bell, American Express reported first quarter net income of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, and diluted earnings per share were 1.34 dollars.
Shares of Verizon dropped over 1.5 percent early Thursday after the tech giant posted worse-than-expected quarterly results.
On the economic front, in the week ending April 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 244,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 234,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
The four-week moving average was 243,000, a decrease of 4,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 247,250. Enditem
