Stocks Holding to Upside
Updated from 11:59 a.m. EDT
Stocks in the U.S. were holding to tentative gains Thursday as traders absorbed a swath of retail data, analyst calls and more earnings.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was adding 39 points to 12,854, and the
S&P 500
was up 2 points at 1394. The
Nasdaq
was tacking on 9 points at 2448.
A slight rebound from the previous down session was holding as investors absorbed a
new round of retail data
Thursday morning.
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Report
was among the gainers, rising about 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.
In earnings-related moves,
Toyota
(TM) - Get Report
shares were sagging 4.3% on the specter of an annual profit decline. The automaker Thursday reported a
28% drop in net income
for the fiscal fourth quarter and said it expects its current fiscal year profit to drop 27%.
Ford
(TM) - Get Report
, meanwhile, was trading up 2%.
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 initial foray higher, was retreating 47 cents at $123.06 a barrel in New York. Gold was up $14.80 at $886.00 an ounce.
In Treasuries, the 10-year was yielding 3.84%.
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.