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New York - Wall Street stocks edged higher early on Thursday ahead of earnings reports from Amazon and other technology giants as the European Central Bank kept interest rates low.
The ECB, as expected, left key interest rates at historic lows and mass bond-buying unchanged. President Mario Draghi pointed to overall economic improvement in the eurozone, although inflation remains low.
Several key quarterly earnings reports will be released after the market close from Amazon, Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft, among others.
About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 20,982.61, up less than 0.1%.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose a hair to 2 387.70, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.1% to 6 032.76.
Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare said investors were digesting outlines of President Donald Trump's tax cut proposal and plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as economic data and earnings.
"Thus far, the stock market seems to be taking it in stride," O'Hare said.
American Airlines tumbled 8.3% after it announced an unexpected pay increase for employees even as it reported lower first-quarter earnings which it blamed on high fuel costs.
Other airlines also fell, with United Continental losing 2.4% and Delta Air Lines 2.2%.
Bristol-Myers Squibb rose 2.8% after reporting a 31.7% in earnings to $1.6bn.
