The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 29.96 points or 0.23 per cent to 12,793.18 within the first four minutes after the market open.

The tech-rich Nasdaq composite climbed 3.06 points or 0.13 per cent to 2,408.27 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 1.99 points or 0.14 per cent to 1,381.92.

The main Wall Street averages ended Wednesday modestly higher, with the Dow up 0.34 per cent, the Nasdaq 1.19 per cent and the S&P 500 0.29 per cent.

Pessimistic outlooks from Motorola and Apple helped dim sentiment.

Motorola, the telephone equipment manufacturer, reported deepening losses in the first quarter and warned of further losses in the second quarter. The company posted a first-quarter loss of US$194 million (S$263 million), or nine cents a share, slightly deeper than market expectations of a seven cent loss, and a 39 per cent drop in telephone sales.

After Wednesday's market close, Apple reported that profits in the first three months of the year topped one billion dollars as sales of Macintosh computers climbed more than 50 per cent, but trimmed its earnings prediction for the current quarter.

Ford swung into profit of US$100 million in the first quarter in a surprise turnaround for the struggling auto giant that has been mired in deep losses.

The number-two US automaker swung to profit from a loss of US$282 million in the same period a year ago and a US$2.7 billion deficit for all of 2007.

The profit amounted to five cents a share, far better than the average analyst estimate for a loss of 16 cents.

'These pleasant surprises underscore an emerging theme this reporting season that earnings aren't as good as they used to be, but still aren't as bad as many headlines ahead of the reporting season had intimated they would be,' said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare. -- AFP