Wall Street has finished higher for the third straight session, shrugging off global growth worries in expectation the European Central Bank will announce aggressive stimulus measures on Thursday.

Strong earnings by Netflix and UnitedHealth buoyed some of the trade, while IBM shares sank on its poor fourth-quarter report.

At the close on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 39.24 points (0.22 per cent) at 17,554.47.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 9.73 (0.48 per cent) at 2,032.28, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gained 12.57 (0.27 per cent) at 4,667.42.