The company said it earned $770 million, or 87 cents a share, compared to earnings of $410 million, or 47 cents a share last year, exceeding expectations of earnings of 64 cents. Sales for the quarter grew more than 20% to hit $5.26 billion.

By sector, technology, telecoms and airlines led advancers. The strength in the tech sector was also contributed by gains for Xilinx (XLNX: chart), up 3% and Qualcom (QCOM: chart) which gained 1% after it said its Q2 profit rose 22% on higher sales of cell phone chips and raised its 2007 sales and profit forecast. Microsoft (MSFT: chart) added 0.8% ahead of earnings report.

On the side of the losers, metals miners declined as gold prices weakened on stronger dollar. Newmont Mining (NEM: chart) fell 3.6% after its Q1 profit fell sharply and came in below expectations. Transportation and banking stocks also moved to the downside. Norfolk Southern (NSC: chart) helped to lead the transportations sector lower, with the railroad company falling 2.6%.

Among other notable gainers, General Motors (GM: chart) climbed 1.8%, following 4.4% gain for rival automaker Ford (F: chart) on narrower-than-expected loss. 3M (MMM: chart) led the blue-chip gainers with an advance of 4% on strong earnings and broker upgrade. In midmorning trading, the Dow slipped 2.92, or 0.02%, to 13,086.97 after hitting a fresh trading high of 13,120.53. The Dow is now up more than 5% on the year. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.06, or 0.20%, to 1,492.36, while the Nasdaq composite index climbed 0.66, or 0.03%, to 2,548.44.


9:45AM U.S. markets opened higher. The Dow traded above 13,000-point milestone.

Wall Street opened modestly higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones moving further above the 13,000 mark on much stronger-than-expected earnings from Apple and upbeat results from 3M Corp. and Ford Motor Co. On the Dow, 3M (MMM: chart) climbed 4% after its earnings beat estimates and Prudential Securities upgraded the stock.

Fellow Dow member Ford (F: chart) rose 4.6% after the automaker reported a narrower adjusted loss than analysts had anticipated. Apple (APPL: chart) traded up 5% on 88% earnings jump in Q1. Technology shares also received a boost from chip maker Xilinx (XLNX: chart) which rose 3% on better-than-expected earnings.

Exxon Mobil (XOM: chart) posted 10% profit rise in Q1, as higher refining, marketing and chemical profit margins offset lower crude oil and natural gas prices. Net income rose to $9.3 billion, or $1.62 per share, up from $8.4 billion or $1.37 per share a year ago, beating estimates of a profit of $1.52 per share. However, revenue fell to $87.2 billion from $88.9 billion a year earlier, hurt by lower oil and natural gas prices.

The Dow rose 28.29, or 0.22%, to 13,118.96 in the opening minutes of trading, hitting a new trading high of 13,120.53. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.78, or 0.05%, to 1,496.20, and the Nasdaq composite index climbed 4.88, or 0.19%, to 2,552.77.

Initial jobless claims fell by 20,000.
Thursday morning, the Department of Labor released its report on initial jobless claims in the week ended April 21. The report showed that jobless claims fell by more than economists had been expecting. The Labor Department said jobless claims fell to 321,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 341,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to fall to 330,000 from the 339,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The decrease, which marked the bigger drop in jobless claims in nine weeks, was partly due to adjustments related to the Easter holiday, which does not fall in the same week every year. At the same time, the report also showed that the less volatile four-week moving average rose to 332,000 from the previous week's revised average of 329,250. Continuing claims for the week ended April 14 also rose, surging up to 2.594 million from the preceding week's revised level of 2.529 million.


9:30AM FTSE trades higher Thursday on U.S. close overnight and M&A.

The UK market was higher on Thursday. The FTSE 100 rose 27.8 points to 6,489.5 in mid-morning deals.

Advancers

With markets close to new highs, Amvescap, the fund manager highly exposed to US markets, gained 1.8%, while Man Group, the world largest listed hedge fund rose 1.4% and Investec also made gains, up 1.7%.

Contract caterer Compass Group, up 2.5%, benefited from a 24% rise in interim profits at its French peer Sodexho Alliance.

Arm Holdings surged with a 5.5% rise after it unveiled plans to return over 100 million pounds to investors in 2007.

Miners were also doing well, with Anglo American, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto attracting attention. Anglo American advanced 0.3%, Antofagasta was up 1.9% and Rio Tinto rose 0.1%.