US stocks have closed broadly higher, helped by solid gains from Procter & Gamble over its cost-cutting plan and blue-chip stalwart IBM.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday closed up 46.02 points (0.36 per cent) to 12,984.69.

The broad-market S&P 500 gained 5.80 points (0.43 per cent) to 1,363.46, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 23.81 (0.81 per cent) to 2,956.98.

The market opened lower but then gained a footing in positive territory after an hour.

Gregori Volokhine of Meeschaert New York said the market was helped by the government’s weekly data on unemployment claims that underlined the continuing improvement in the jobs sector.

“The market continues to draw on the employment situation,” he said.

“The day was not rich in news,” he added.

P&G led the Dow higher with a 3.1 per cent gain after announcing a sweeping $US10 billion ($A9.43 billion) cost-cutting program that will include cutting 10 per cent of its workforce, or 5700 jobs, by the end of 2013.

IBM chipped in with a 1.9 per cent gain.

But Hewlett-Packard limited the gains with its 6.5 per cent loss after reporting late on Wednesday a 44 per cent profit fall in its fiscal first quarter.

On the Nasdaq, eBay pushed up 3.9 per cent, Qualcomm 1.5 per cent, and Apple 0.7 per cent.

Dell also rebounded 1.5 per cent after its sharp loss on Wednesday following disappointing earnings.

Shares in biotech firm Vivus skyrocketed 77.5 per cent after an advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday urged approval of its new obesity drug, Qnexa.

Qnexa would be the first FDA-approved obesity drug in more than a decade.

Bond prices pushed higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 1.98 per cent from 2.00 per cent on Wednesday, while the 30-year climbed to 3.12 per cent from 3.14 per cent.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.