At closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index added 152.84 points, or 0.54%, to 28,363.66. The S&P 500 index was up 17.93 points, or 0.52%, to 3,453.49. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 21.31 points, or 0.19%, to 11,506.01.

All sectors in the S&P 500 index were higher, led by energy and financials, consumer staples were the worst-performing sector.

US House speaker Nancy Pelosi said a deal on new coronavirus aid was "just about there", despite continued opposition from the Republican-controlled Senate. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi reported progress in talks with the Trump administration for another round of financial aid and said legislation could be hammered out "pretty soon". However, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow cautioned "significant policy differences" remained, which were unlikely to be resolved before the Nov. 3 election.

Shares of JPMorgan Chase gained 3.5% as the 10-year US Treasury yield hit 4-month highs on stimulus hopes. AT&T shares rallied 5.8% after the phone giant added more wireless subscribers than analysts estimated. Tesla shares climbed 0.8% after reporting its fifth consecutive quarterly profit on record revenue of US$8.8 billion. CocaCola shares gained 1.4% as it beat quarterly results expectations. Chipotle Mexican Grill shares fell 4.9% as it posted a drop in quarterly profit.

ECONOMIC NEWS: US leading index climbs 0.7% in September- US leading economic index climbed by 0.7% in September after surging up by a revised 1.4% in August, the Conference Board reported on Thursday, suggesting the U.S. economy could be losing momentum heading into the final quarter of 2020. However, the continued increase by the leading economic index was driven primarily by declining unemployment claims and rising housing permits. The report said the coincident economic index crept up by 0.2% in September after climbing by 0.8% in August. Meanwhile, the lagging economic index edged down by 0.1% in September, matching the dip seen in the previous month.

US Existing Home Sales Soar 9.4% In September- US existing home sales soared by 9.4% to an annual rate of 6.54 million in September after jumping by 2% to a revised rate of 5.98 million in August, reflecting record-low interest rates and an abundance of buyers, the National Association of Realtors reported on Thursday. The report said the median existing home price for all housing types was $311,800, in September, up 0.5% from $310.400 in August and up 14.8% from $271,500 a year ago. Housing inventory at the end of September totaled 1.47 million units, down 1.3% from August and down 19.2% from September of 2019. The unsold inventory represents 2.7 months of supply at the current sales pace, down from 3.0 months in August and down from 4.0 months a year ago.

US Weekly Jobless Claims Fall To 787,000- US initial jobless claims fell to 787,000 in the week ended October 17th, a decrease of 55,000 from the previous week's revised level of 842,000, a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed. Along with the notable downward revision to the previous week's number, the report showed initial jobless claims in the week ended October 3rd were downwardly revised to 767,000 from 845,000. The report said the less volatile four-week moving average dipped to 811,250, a decrease of 21,500 from the previous week's revised average of 832,750. Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also tumbled by 1.024 million to 8.373 million in the week ended October 10th.

Among Indian ADR, INFOSYS added 0.07% to $15.35, HDFC Bank added 0.4% to $60.02, Wipro climbed up 0.4% to $5.02, WNS Holdings jumped up 4.05% to $64.25, Vedanta was up 2.18% to $5.62, Tata Motors added 3.17% to $9.12, and Dr Reddys Labs added 0.3% to $67.80. ICICI Bank fell 0.96% to $11.35 and Azure Power Global fell 2.7% to $26.70.