NEW YORK, USA (AP) — US stock indexes rose yesterday after European leaders pledged to help Greece with its growing debt crisis.

Greece’s debt problems have been spooking global markets for weeks, and hopes that a rescue was on the way helped lead stocks higher in the US and Europe over the past three days.

The US Labour Department’s report that first-time claims for jobless benefits fell more than expected last week was also supporting the market.

Expectations had been building that a Thursday summit of European leaders would produce a solution for the problem, but the verbal commitment that emerged to provide unspecified help to Greece later only partly assuaged investors’ concerns. European officials are not expected to disclose specifics of the plan until early next week.

“We’re close to weathering the Greece situation,” said Stephen Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments.

Greece’s fiscal crisis has been undermining confidence in Europe’s shared currency, the euro, which fell again against the dollar after the anticlimactic summit in Europe.

Fiscal problems at other weak European economies, including Portugal and Spain, have also been weakening faith in the euro, which is shared by 16 countries but has no central fiscal authority. Runaway deficit spending in weaker states like Greece has tested the market’s faith in the euro countries to keep their budgets under control.

In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 93.41, or 0.9 per cent, to 10,131.79. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 8.21, or 0.8 per cent, to 1,076.34, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 26.52, or 1.2 per cent, to 2,174.39.

Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.74 per cent from 3.69 per cent late Wednesday.

The dollar was mixed on other major currencies. The euro fell on the possibility of a bailout for Greece. Gold rose.

The Labour Department said the number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits fell by 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 440,000, the lowest level in a month. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting claims to fall to 465,000.

The sharp drop came after claims rose in four of the previous five weeks. The recent increase in claims put investors on edge about whether an economic recovery would be sustainable. High unemployment is one of the biggest obstacles to a rebound.

Two other reports scheduled to be released yesterday were postponed because of two major snowstorms that have shut down the federal government in recent days. The Commerce Department will delay, at least for one day, reports on monthly retail sales and business inventories.

In corporate news, the utility company FirstEnergy said it is buying rival power provider Allegheny Energy for about US$4.7 billion in stock. It will also assume about US$3.8 billion in debt.

Allegheny jumped US$2.36, or 11.3 per cent, to US$23.39, while FirstEnergy fell US$2.18, or 5.3 per cent, to US$39.28.

Stocks fell modestly Wednesday, erasing steep early morning losses as investors became more comfortable with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s plan to unwind stimulus measures the central bank launched to support the economy.

Bernanke said the Fed will likely start to tighten credit by increasing the interest rate it pays on deposits with the central bank.

Yesterday, two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 431.7 million shares compared with 407.9 million traded at the same point Wednesday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 4.90, or 0.8 per cent, to 600.72.