A rebound in US durable goods orders in May, a sign of firmer action in US industry, has helped push US stocks higher in the wake of European and Asian markets.

All sectors except discretionary consumer goods were higher, as traders shrugged off the discord in Europe ahead of a crucial summit on Thursday to deal with the eurozone crisis.

At the close of trade on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 92.34 points (0.74 per cent) at 12,627.01.

The S&P 500 index advanced 11.86 (0.90 per cent) to 1,331.85, while the tech-rich Nasdaq rose 21.26 (0.74 per cent) to 2,875.32.

News Corp shares gained 2.5 per cent as company board members gathered in New York to consider splitting Rupert Murdoch’s media giant in two, hiving off its poorly performing newspapers from its more profitable entertainment businesses.

Facebook fell 2.6 per cent to $US32.23 – still well below its $US38 IPO price – as a slew of brokers issued their analyses for the company for the first time since it went public, their forecasts ranging from extremely poor to a booming success.

Bank of America was up 2.0 per cent and JPMorgan Chase 3.0 per cent to lead the Dow.

On the Nasdaq, Google gained 0.8 per cent as it launched its own branded Nexus 7 tablet computer on Wednesday, challenging the Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle Fire.

Amazon was flat and Apple added 0.4 per cent.

Shares in the large auto parts retailer AutoZone fell 4.6 per cent despite reporting a 9.3 per cent rise in fiscal third-quarter earnings and a slight increase in margins. Total net sales came in slightly under forecasts.

Homebuilder Lennar gained 4.8 per cent as it reported improved sales in its homebuilding division, amid slight signs of a pickup in new home sales.

Bond prices inched higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 1.62 per cent from 1.63 per cent Tuesday, while the 30-year yield fell to 2.69 per cent from at 2.70 per cent.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.