Stocks Get Manufacturing Lift

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks finished modestly higher Thursday after a jump in regional manufacturing data offset higher-than-expected inflation and jobless claims numbers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 30 points, or 0.2%, at 12,318. The S&P 500 gained 4 points, or 0.3%, at 1340, and the Nasdaq finished higher by 6 points, or 0.2%, at 2831.

Coca-Cola(KO), DuPont(DD) and Intel(INTC) topped the Dow while American Express(AXP), Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) and United Technologies(UTX) were the biggest laggards.

The domestic economy took center stage Thursday, even as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East heated up.

Manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region soared in February as the Philly Fed index jumped to a reading of 35.9 after January's level of 19.3. Economists had been expecting a reading of only 21.

However, consumer price data kept gains in check as prices rose a little more than expected in January. The Labor Department's consumer price index ticked 0.4% higher, compared with the increase of 0.3% that the market expected. In December, the CPI gained 0.4%. The core rate, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2% in January. Economists had expected the level to inch 0.1% higher after similar growth in December.

"While December's increase in the CPI was influenced heavily by energy costs, the underlying drivers for January broadened as food prices also increased at a faster pace," said Jim Baird, partner and chief investment strategist for Plante Moran Financial Advisors.

"Rising energy and food costs do have the potential to act as a tax on the consumer and economic growth, but the recent rate would need to be sustained over a longer period of time to have a meaningful impact," he said, adding that the weak job market and constrained wages would likely keep inflation subdued in the near term.

The Labor Department said initial weekly jobless claims rose by 25,000, to 410,000 in the week ended Feb. 12, from 385,000. The rise was in line with the increase to 408,000 from an initially reported level of 383,000 that economists had been looking for, according to Briefing.com.

The Conference Board said leading indicators rose 0.1% in January, which was milder than the 0.3% increase that economists had been expecting, according to Briefing.com. That compares to a jump of 1% in December.