Stocks rallied Thursday as investors shrugged off a rise in jobless claims and focused on encouraging earnings from Ford and 3M. A third straight rise in existing-home sales also buoyed the market.

Futures indicated a slightly higher open for Wall Street Thursday ahead of another vast amount of earnings reports.

A New York Times reporter who was kidnapped by the Taliban has escaped and made his way to freedom after more than seven months of captivity in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Members of The Boston Globe's largest employee union will vote on whether to accept deep concessions in wages and benefits designed to avoid the possible closure of a newspaper losing more than $1 million per week.