Global Rally Spurs Wall Street

"We're trading very well today on tempered optimism," said Jay Suskind, head of institutional equity trading with Ryan Beck & Co. "We've had sideways trading for the last few days, and after stabilizing we're now higher ahead of tomorrow's employment number."

The Labor Department will post February's jobs data on Friday at 8:30 a.m. EST. Economists expect that the U.S. economy added 100,000 workers last month.

In the final report before the jobs data, the Labor Department said that initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 last week to 328,000. The less volatile four-week moving average rose by 4,750 to 339,000.

"Today's jobless claims number doesn't change our view on tomorrow's payroll number, which is good," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst with Jefferies. "The number was in line with expectations, so tomorrow's nonfarm payrolls number shouldn't stray too much from expectations. Friday's report will return our focus to fundamentals, away from global markets, which is what we need to do."

The global markets helped spur Wall Street's buying Thursday, as bourses across Asia posted solid gains overnight. China's Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index climbed 1.5%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.4%, and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was ahead by 1.9%.

Europe was also on the ascent, with London's FTSE 100 better by 1.2% and Frankfurt's Xetra DAX up 1.4%. The Cac 40 in Paris rose 1.3%.