US stocks end higher, reversing a loss from the day before

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are closing slightly higher as investors speculate that last-ditch talks will produce an agreement between Greece and its creditors.

European markets closed with bigger gains on Thursday. Chinese stocks rose sharply overnight after the government's latest efforts to halt a plunge.

The New York Stock Exchange said a four-hour outage in its trading systems Wednesday was caused by problems with a software upgrade.

Walgreens Boots Alliance jumped 4 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 33 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,548. The Dow slumped 261 points the day before.

The Standard & Poor's 500 increased four points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,051 and the Nasdaq gained 12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,922.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.30 percent.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index climbed 11 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,058 as of 3:21 p.m. Eastern time. The index had slumped 1.7 percent on Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 94 points, or 0.5 percent, to 17,609. The Nasdaq composite gained 28 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,938.

THE GREEK SAGA: The Greek government is set to deliver a list of reforms and austerity measures to creditors later Thursday. The country is trying to secure a new bailout deal at a meeting of the European Union's 28 leaders Sunday. Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan put the chances of a deal at better than 50 percent while Donald Tusk, who will chair Sunday's meeting, indicated that some form of debt relief should be on the table.

THE QUOTE: In the U.S., investor concerns about China's stock market collapse and a possible Greek default are overdone, said Jeremy Zirin, an equity strategist at UBS Wealth Management. That's because both issues will have only a limited impact on the U.S. economy.

"Markets had sold off on a myriad of events that are unlikely to have a meaningful impact on the business cycle," Zirin said. "My perspective is that we will continue to see pretty good growth coming out of the U.S., even out of Europe."

EUROPEAN REBOUND: In Europe, Germany's DAX spiked 2.3 percent, while the CAC-40 in France rose 2.6 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 1.4 percent higher.

CHINA TURMOIL: In China, frantic efforts by authorities to stop the nearly monthlong slide in the country's stocks appeared to be giving the market an artificial bounce, analysts said. A flurry of measures announced Wednesday included a government order to state companies and executives to buy shares. A directive from the China Securities Regulatory Commission requires investors owning more than 5 percent of a company's shares to not sell any of their holdings for the next six months.

ASIA SCORECARD: The Shanghai Composite in mainland China surged 5.8 percent after initially opening sharply lower. The index is still down 27 percent in the last month. Hong Kong's Hang Seng also rebounded, climbing 3.7 percent after suffering its biggest drop since the financial crisis.

HEALTHY EARNINGS: Walgreens Boots Alliance, the owner of Walgreens and Duane Reade drugstores, surged after reporting fiscal third-quarter earnings that exceeded analysts' expectations. The company also raised its outlook for the year. The stock climbed $3.59, or 4.3 percent, to $90.06.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.13 to $52.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, an international benchmark, rose $1.56 to $58.61 a barrel in London.

BONDS AND CURRENCIES: Bond prices fell, pushing up the yield on the 10-year Treasury note up to 2.31 percent from 2.20 percent on Wednesday. The euro fell to $1.1022 while the dollar rose to 121.31 yen.

METALS: In metals trading, silver rose 19.8 cents to $15.35 an ounce. Gold fell $4.30 to $1,159.20 an ounce and copper rose 5.4 cents to $2.56 a pound.

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