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

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 46.02 points (0.36 percent) to 12,984.69.

 

The broad-market S&P 500 gained 5.80 points (0.43 percent) to 1,363.46, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 23.81 (0.81 percent) 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 percent gain after announcing a sweeping $10 billion cost-cutting program that will include cutting 10 percent of its workforce, or 5,700 jobs, by the end of 2013.

 

IBM chipped in with a 1.9 percent gain.

 

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

 

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

 

Dell also rebounded 1.5 percent after its sharp loss Wednesday following disappointing earnings.

 

Shares in biotech firm Vivus skyrocketed 77.5 percent 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 percent from 2.00 percent on Wednesday, while the 30-year climbed to 3.12 percent from 3.14 percent.

 

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. — Agence France Presse