North American stocks look likely to extend their gains Thursday, with Apple’s surprisingly strong profit and Ford Motor’s much smaller-than-forecast loss buoying sentiment.

Apple reported an 88% profit rise and a 21% jump in revenue, helped by lower costs on components, such as flash-memory chips for its hit iPod products.

Ford shares jumped 9.9% after the auto maker reported a narrower first-quarter loss that beat Wall Street’s expectations, helped by stronger performance at its international units and higher revenue.

On Wednesday, the Dow industrials topped the 13000 threshold thanks to better-than-expected durable-goods data, strong earnings results.

In other earnings news, Nexen had first-quarter net income of $121 million up from a year-ago loss of $83 million as production rose 20%.

Suncor Energy said its profit fell to $551 million from $713 million.

Western Oil Sands reported a first-quarter profit of $31.6 million, up from $24.8 million.

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. logged its highest-ever quarterly profit with net income of US$198 million, up from US$125.5 million.

Nissan reported a 54% decline in quarterly profit, its first annual profit decline since 1999.

Dow Chemical reported a 20% decline first-quarter profit, as results were weighed down by significantly lower licensing revenue from the performance-plastics segment.

Exxon Mobil, and after the close, Microsoft are also due to reveal earnings.

There are no major economic reports from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US89.34¢, down 0.39 of a cent from Wednesday.

Crude-oil futures fell 16¢ to US$65.58 a barrel, a day after weekly energy supply data showed a surprising decline in gasoline inventories.

Overseas stock markets were buoyant. The Nikkei 225 closed 1.1% higher in Tokyo, and the FTSE 100 added 0.4% in London.

On Wednesday, a surging resource sector boosted the S&P/TSX composite index 82.52 points, or 0.61%, to close at 13,672.85.

Seven of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index inched up 1.37 points, or 0.04%, to 3,302.18.

In New York, markets powered higher on an encouraging durable goods report and strong corporate earnings news.

The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 135.95 points, or 1.05%, to 13,089.89, setting an all-time record and busting through the 13,000-point plateau.

The Nasdaq composite index gained 23.35 points, or 0.92%, to 2,547.89, and the S&P 500 rose 15.01, or 1.01%, to 1,495.42.