Wall Street advanced after better-than-expected corporate earnings from Netflix and eBay, while Greek lawmakers voted in favour of a third international bailout, safeguarding the nation's place in the euro zone.
Shares of Netflix soared, last up 17.6 per cent, after the company posted a leap in the number of its subscribers.
Shares of eBay rose 3.3 per cent after the company reported earnings that exceeded expectations and said it will sell its enterprise technology business for US$925 million.
In late afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.7 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.1 per cent.
Gains in shares of Microsoft and those of IBM last 1.6 per cent and 1.4 per cent stronger respectively, led the Dow higher. Shares in Goldman were lower after it opted to set aside a significantly larger provision to cover potential US mortgage settlement payments.
The latest weekly jobless claims data were better than anticipated. Initial claims for US unemployment benefits slid 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 281,000 for the week ended July 11. Economists polled by Bloomberg and Reuters in separate surveys had forecast 285,000.