Stocks Take Small Step Ahead

Updated from 2:41 p.m. EDT

Stocks in the U.S. ended Thursday's session with small gains amid a flurry of news, including first-quarter earnings from Wal-Mart (WMT Quote) and economic releases on inflation at the wholesale level and jobless claims.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 46.43 points, or 0.6%, to close at 8331.32, retracing some of the 184-point loss from Wednesday. The S&P 500 added 9.15 points, or 1%, to 893.07. The Nasdaq Composite rose 25.02 points, or 1.5%, to 1689.21.

"This was somewhat encouraging, but the market is still trying to get its feet beneath it," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist with Banyan Partners. "We got beat up for three days, so we're still trying to shake that off."

Pavlik said there is still concern that the economy won't be as strong as the recent strength in the market anticipated. "Running the market up ahead of normal trend growth isn't working right now," he said. "The consumer is still burdened by heavy debt loads. We still really don't know where we are from an economic standpoint yet. Time will tell."

Gains of 4% or more in Morgan Stanley (MS Quote), Dow Chemical (DOW Quote), Ford (F Quote) and Regions Financial (RF Quote) helped support the major averages.

Before the opening bell, Wal-Mart reported first-quarter earnings of $3 billion, or 77 cents a share, in line with the estimates of analysts and at the high end of the company's internal forecasts.

Wal-Mart said it expects second-quarter earnings of 83 cents to 88 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the retailer to earn 85 cents a share in the period. Shares gave back 1.9% to $49.10.