Wall Street finished higher Wednesday for the third straight session, shrugging off global growth worries in expectation the European Central Bank will announce aggressive stimulus measures Thursday.
Strong earnings by Netflix and UnitedHealth buoyed some of the trade, while IBM shares sank on its poor fourth-quarter report.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 39.24 points (0.22 percent) at 17,554.47.
The broad-based S&P 500 added 9.73 (0.48 percent) at 2,032.28, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gained 12.57 (0.27 percent) at 4,667.42.