Stocks Find Footing
Updated from 10:44 a.m. EDT
Stocks in the U.S. were rising tentatively Thursday as traders looked to stem the selloff that hit Wall Street in the previous session.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was adding 56 points to 12,870, and the
S&P 500
was up 3 points at 1395. The
Nasdaq
was tacking on 11 points at 2449.
A slight rebound from the previous down session was taking shape as investors absorbed a
new round of retail data
Thursday morning.
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Report
was among the gainers, rising 1.2% after saying its April same-store sales climbed 3.2% last month, excluding fuel sales, a result that topped expectations.
Total sales for the month climbed 9.8% to $29.18 billion. The world's biggest retailer was just one of many U.S. chain stores reporting numbers during the morning.
Costco
(COST) - Get Report
said comps were up 8% last month, but
Limited
(LTD)
had a same-store sales decline of 5%.
BJ's Wholesale
(BJ) - Get Report
had an increase of 17.8% in comps, and at
McDonald's
(MCD) - Get Report
, same-store sales rose 5% worldwide last month.
Gap
(GPS) - Get Report
was also a positive, lifting its first-quarter profit forecast.
Among the analyst actions, Merrill Lynch downgraded a number of airlines, cutting
Delta
(DAL) - Get Report
,
UAL
(UAUA)
,
US Airways
(LCC)
,
AMR
(AMR)
and
Contintental
(CAL) - Get Report
to neutral from buy.
Crude oil, after an inital foray higher, was retreating $1.42 at $122.08 a barrel in New York. Gold was up $13.50 at $844.70 an ounce.
In Treasuries, the 10-year was yielding 3.82%.
Overseas, stocks were mostly to the downside. Tokyo's Nikkei lost 1.1% to 13,943, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.6% to 25,450. In Europe, the London FTSE edged lower to 6260, and the Paris Cac was off 0.5% at 5049. Frankfurt's Xetra Dax shed 0.4% to 7051.
This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.com.