Stocks Edge Upward After Rocky Start

"April's drop overstates the impact of the economy on output, as strikes in the automobile sector shaved three-tenths of a percentage point from total output," Crescenzi wrote. He also cited the fact that April saw a large 1.2% decline aggregate hours worked in the manufacturing sector.

Shepherdson remains pessimistic. "The decline in output ex-autos was broad, with falls in consumer goods, materials, construction supplies and business equipment," he said in an emailed statement. "The dollar value of business equipment produced -- a key indicator of capital spending -- fell a hefty 1.8%, after being flat for the past three quarters or so. Further declines would be very worrying."

Capacity utilization was also a bit light, coming in at 79.7% compared with the 80.1% consensus forecast.

Elsewhere on the economic docket, jobless claims were roughly in line with expectations, rising by 6,000 to 371,000. That was about 1,000 more than had been predicted.

As the new day began, traders were greeted with word that CBS (CBS Quote - Cramer on CBS - Stock Picks) would buy Internet media company CNET (CNET Quote - Cramer on CNET - Stock Picks) for $1.8 billion. That news lifted CNET by more than 40%, but CBS was slipping 3.6%.

Separately, General Electric (GE Quote - Cramer on GE - Stock Picks), a component of the Dow, is considering selling or parting ways with its appliances division, according to The Wall Street Journal. The unit could fetch $5 billion to $8 billion, the report said. Still, after a brief rise out of the gate, shares lately were slipping 12 cents at $32.39.

Meanwhile, investors were mulling reports that billionaire investor Carl Icahn -- who was said earlier this week to have begun acquiring large amounts of Yahoo! (YHOO Quote - Cramer on YHOO - Stock Picks) stock -- has lined up 10 possible directors to nominate as replacements for the Internet company's board. Yahoo! shares were up 1.2%.

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