Facebook surges on earnings; US stocks up slightly |

Facebook shares bolted higher Thursday following a big earnings jump as US equities registered modest gains in opening trade.

Five minutes into trade, Facebook was up 4.6 percent after posting an 11 percent gain in third-quarter profits to $891 million behind a 41 percent surge in revenues to $4.5 billion. Many of Facebook’s gains came from higher mobile advertising revenues.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 22.64 points (0.13 percent) at 17,890.22.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 1.23 (0.06 percent) at 2,103.54, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 3.38 (0.07 percent) to 5,145.86.