Stocks Decide Data, Earnings Are Upbeat

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- After wavering throughout the day on mixed data and the inability of earnings reports to push the market in a clear direction, stocks caught their breath and ended the session in positive territory.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 72 points higher, or up 0.6%, at 12,763. The S&P 500 was up by 5 points, or 0.4%, at 1360, and the Nasdaq was up 3 points, or 0.09%, at 2873. Despite confused trading action throughout the day, all three indices managed to hit 52-week highs at 12,767.02 for the Dow, 1360.80 for the S&P and 2873.45 for the Nasdaq.

The U.S. economy grew at a much slower pace of 1.8% in the first quarter, which compares to growth of 3.1% in 2010's fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said in its initial read on first-quarter gross domestic product. The level came in slightly above economists' expectations for a first-quarter increase of 1.7%.

Initial jobless claims unexpectedly rose by 25,000 to 429,000 in the week ended April 23, according to the Labor Department's report. Economists had expected claims to fall to 390,000, from the prior week's initially reported level of 403,000, which was upwardly revised to 404,000.

The National Association of Realtors said its pending-home sales index rose 5.1% in March to a reading of 94.1 from a downwardly revised level of 89.5 in February. The increase was much stronger than economists' expectations. According to Briefing.com, Wall Street expected the gauge to show growth of 1.7% in March.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.4% while Japan's Nikkei jumped 1.6% on Thursday. London's FTSE ended flat while the DAX in Frankfurt added 1%.

Paul Ballew, chief economist at Nationwide, said economic data didn't give the market any big surprises.

"The market largely got what it was anticipating," he said of the morning's GDP report. "Consumer spending moderated but was still decent in the first quarter, housing was a drag and trade was a drag, at least temporarily."

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