New York - US stocks opened higher on Wednesday, propelled by solid earnings from Boeing and a $19bn acquisition of computer storage company SanDisk by Western Digital.
Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17 268.45, up 51.34 points.
The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.24% to 2 035.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.36% to 4 898.69.
Dow member Boeing rose 1.6% after reporting that third-quarter net income jumped 25.1% to $1.7bn.
Global computer disk drive leader Western Digital announced it will pay $19bn for flash memory specialist SanDisk. SanDisk rose 3.6%, while Western Digital fell 0.5%.