US stocks followed European and Asian markets higher on opening today, helped by a rebound in US durable goods orders that reversed two months of declines. Five minutes into trade the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 41.70 points (0.33 per cent) at 12,576.37. The S&P 500 index advanced 6.35 (0.48 per cent) to 1326.34, while the tech-rich Nasdaq rose 13.04 (0.46 per cent) to 2867.10. News Corp shares gained 1.4 per cent as its board was to meet in New York to consider splitting Rupert Murdoch's media giant into two, hiving off its poorly performing newspapers from its more profitable entertainment businesses. Facebook fell 3.0 per cent to $32.12 - still well below its $38 IPO price - as a slew of brokers issued their analyses for the company for the first time since it went public, with their forecasts ranging from extremely poor to a booming success.