The Toronto Stock Exchange was moving toward a fourth-straight day of gains on Thursday morning.
Shortly after the open, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 68.95 points, or 0.61 per cent, to 11,389.66.
Helping financial stocks across North American was news of a $5-billion U.S. investment from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in Bank of America Corp.
This comes after three straight days of gains on the TSX, as most world markets have seen improvements in recent days. However, the more confident tone in markets has resulted in a sell-off of gold, which is seen as a safe haven in uncertain times.
Bay Streets gains were slight on Wednesday, largely as a result share-price declines in the influential gold sector on the TSX .
Gold continued to drop Thursday, falling $39.80 to $1,717.50 U.S. an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude oil was up 57 cents to $85.73 U.S. a barrel.
The Canadian dollar was up 44 basis points to $1.0180 U.S..
Data from the U.S. showed an unexpected rise of 5,000 initial jobless claims to 417,000 last week. Economists expected 405,000 following previous data that showed 408,000 a week earlier, a figure that was upwardly revised to 412,000.
Investors continued to guess whether any new stimulus measures would be in store when U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke speaks in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday.
The previous day's announcement that Steve Jobs had resigned as CEO of Apple Inc. was sure to be factor on stock markets Thursday. The news came after markets closed on Wednesday, though Apple share were down in overnight trading.
Shortly after trading began in the U.S. Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 71.67 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 11,392.38. The Nasdaq composite index was up 15.21 points, or 0.62 per cent, to 2,482.90.
European stock markets lost earlier gains after the data on U.S. jobless claims were released. The United Kingdom's FTSE index was down 28.6 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 5,177.35. In France, the CAC fell 1.06 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 3,138.49. Germany's DAX declined 19.91 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 5,661.17.
There were some solid gains on Asian markets on Thursday as investors there got a chance to act on the previous day's better-than-expected durable-goods data from the U.S. Japan's Nikkei index was up 132.75 points, or 1.54 per cent, to 8,772.36. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 285.69 points, or 1.47 per cent, to 19,752.48. In mainland China, the Shanghai composite surged 74.17 points, or 2.92 per cent, to 2,615.26.
On Wednesday, the TSX was up 5.48 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 12,343.81. The Dow Jones was up 143.95 points, or 1.29 per cent, to 11,320.71, while the Nasdaq gained 21.63 points, or 0.88 per cent, to 2,467.69.
