NEW YORK, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded in a tight range in the morning session Thursday as the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that the Eurozone base interest rate will remain at 0.00 percent.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 78.85 points, or 0.34 percent, to 23,408.31. The S&P 500 added 6.41 points, or 0.25 percent, to 2,563.56. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 7.74 points, or 0.12 percent, to 6,571.63.
The marginal lending rate and deposit rate remain at 0.25 percent and minus 0.40 percent respectively, according to the ECB.
As regards non-standard monetary policy measures, purchases under the asset purchase programme (APP) will continue at the current monthly pace of 60 billion euros (about 70.8 U.S. dollars) until the end of December 2017.
From January 2018, the net asset purchases are intended to continue at a monthly pace of 30 billion euros (about 35.4 dollars) until the end of September 2018, or beyond.
Earnings season was also in focus. Shares of Twitter, Inc. surged over 16 percent around midday Thursday after the social media platform delivered strong third-quarter results before the opening bell.
The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the third quarter of 2017 are expected to rise 5.3 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase 4.8 percent.
On the economic front, in the week ending Oct. 21, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 233,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level and generally in line with market estimates, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.
Meanwhile, the nation's international advance trade in goods deficit increased to 64.1 billion dollars in September from 63.3 billion dollars in August, the U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday. Enditem
