Stocks Trade With Modest Gains

Wall Street trades slightly higher Thursday mixed as with investors take in a drop in weekly jobless claims and more earnings reports.

Author:: Elizabeth Trotta
Publish date:: Dec 18, 2008 9:44 AM EST

Wall Street trades slightly higher Thursday mixed as with investors take in a drop in weekly jobless claims and more earnings reports.

Stocks on Wall Street opened Thursday with modest gains, as investors took in a slight drop in weekly unemployment claims and prepared for more earnings reports.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

rose 36 points to 8860, and the

S&P 500

ticked up 4.3 points to 908. The

Nasdaq

added 5 points to 1584.

Stocks ended Wednesday with losses as investor enthusiasm over the

Federal Reserve's

historic rate cut Tuesday got overshadowed by a larger-than-expected loss at

Morgan Stanley

(MS) - Get Report

Ahead of trading Thursday, the Labor Department reported that new applications for

jobless benefits

fell to a seasonally adjusted 554,000 from an upwardly revised figure of 575,000 the week before. The number came in slightly below economists' expectations of 558,000.

FedEx

(FDX) - Get Report

reported second-quarter earnings that beat estimates by a penny a share and unveiled a plan to save costs that calls for a cut in its senior executives' pay and a one-year freeze on 401(k) contributions.

Nike

(NKE) - Get Report

posted strong second-quarter results late Wednesday. The athletic apparel company reported net income of $391 million, or 80 cents a share, up 9%, from the $359.4 million, or 71 cents a share, it posted a year ago.

General Motors

(GM) - Get Report

denied as untrue a report in

The Wall Street Journal

that said the company and

Chrysler

have reopened merger talks. GM, Chrysler and

Ford

(F) - Get Report

continue to await word on a federal bailout for the U.S. auto industry.

Meanwhile, President-elect

Barack Obama

is working on a massive economic stimulus package that could total $850 billion over two years to promote jobs, provide middle-class tax relief and expand aid for the poor.

Moving to commodities, crude oil was falling $1.66 to $38.40 a barrel. Gold was down $7.80 to $860.70 an ounce.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were rising in price. The 10-year was rising 1 3.5/32 to yield 2.1% and the 30-year was rising 1 12/32, yielding 2.6%. The dollar was weaker against the euro, pound, and yen.

Overseas, European exchanges such as the FTSE in London and the DAX in Frankfurt were mixed -- with the former down 0.01% and the latter up 1%, respectively. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended with gains.