Stocks rose Thursday on stronger corporate earnings and hopes that the job market may be improving.

Software company Red Hat Inc., chip maker Micron Technology Inc. and Chef Boyardee maker ConAgra Foods Inc. all reported results that beat expectations. Earnings growth has been strong across U.S. companies, which are benefiting from lower costs and stronger revenue overseas.

The government also said fewer people filed for unemployment benefits last week, evidence that layoffs are slowing. The average number of unemployment filings over the last four weeks has dropped to its lowest level since July 2008.

"Corporate earnings continue to be exceptionally strong," said Oliver Pursche, president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services. "I think the markets continue to focus on the underlying recovery of the U.S. economy."

Investors are turning their attention away from a long list of recent worries including high oil prices, violence in Libya and Japan's nuclear crisis. Portugal also headed closer to a bailout after its government resigned late Wednesday. European leaders are meeting to discuss the region's debt problems.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 73 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,159. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,307. The Nasdaq composite index rose 29 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,727.

Oil hovered around $106 per barrel Thursday after government reports gave a mixed read on the U.S. economic recovery.

The Commerce Department said companies trimmed orders for manufactured goods in February, suggesting that businesses are limiting their spending right now. More positive news came from the Labor Department, which said fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, evidence that employers could be expanding their work forces.

Benchmark crude prices fluctuated as traders digested the news. The contract for May delivery added 52 cents at $106.27 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Prices have jumped 24 percent since the middle of February, when a rebellion broke out in Libya and eventually squeezed off production that supplied nearly 2 percent of the world's oil. While rebels and pro-Gadhafi forces still battle in Libya, and the U.S. and other nations enforce a no-fly zone, some oil companies are taking their workers out of Yemen where anti-government protests have been intensifying. Yemen produces only 0.3 percent of the world's oil, according to the International Energy Administration, but it is an important transit point for crude shipments in the Middle East.

Procter & Gamble Co., the world's largest consumer products maker, said Thursday it is teaming up with the world's largest generic drug maker to expand the global reach of over-the-counter brands such as Vicks and Pepto-Bismol.

Cincinnati-based P&G and Jerusalem-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said they plan to combine their over-the-counter drug businesses outside of North America, building leadership in key markets such as Germany, Russia and Brazil while positioning them for faster growth in emerging markets and with more offerings to aging populations in developed markets.

The deal could also eventually help consumers choose from more medicines without a prescription and at lower prices.

P&G's products include Vicks cold medicines, Pepto-Bismol stomach relief, Metamucil fiber supplement and Prilosec OTC heartburn medicine.

The deal will expand the companies' reach geographically and in retail outlets including drugstores and groceries, said Shlomo Yanai, Teva's CEO and president, in a conference call. It also combines Teva's drug research and development experience and global manufacturing with P&G brand-building, marketing and consumer knowledge.

P&G CEO Bob McDonald said on a call that the deal is about building "global scale and sales-leading position."

The joint venture's combined sales are worth about $1 billion a year. The companies estimate that will reach $4 billion within years.

The Michigan Supreme Court says it will decide if judges can order a sewer system when septic tanks fail and spoil a lake.

The court says Thursday it will take an appeal in a case involving Worth Township along Lake Huron in Michigan's Thumb region. State regulators want the township to install a sewer system, but an appeals court said local government isn't responsible for the problems of private property owners.

Some septic systems are failing on a five-mile stretch between M-25 and Lake Huron in Sanilac County. Waste is being discharged into Lake Huron and its tributaries.

Worth Township says it can't build a sewer system without financial help from the state.

A Bronxville, N.Y.-based broadcasting company is buying a struggling affiliate of the ABC broadcast network in Rhode Island for $4 million.

A Superior Court judge in Providence approved the bid by Citadel Communications LLC to buy WLNE-TV on Tuesday because it was the only bidder that had struck an affiliation agreement with ABC. The station's expired affiliate agreement had been extended to April 1.

Court-appointed receiver Matthew McGowan says the deal with ABC was decisive because ABC could yank its signal. Three bidders who had not reached a deal with ABC were required to put the money upfront and competitively bid for the station, but they declined to do so.

Global paid $14 million for WLNE-TV in 2007. The firm went into receivership in 2010. Owner Kevin O'Brien did not respond to a call for comment.