U.S. Stocks Eke Out Slim Gains Ahead Of Easter Break
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks eked out narrow gains Thursday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke from a 5-session winning streak, with price action restrained ahead of the three-day Easter holiday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down up 4 points at 12,533.
The S&P 500 was 1.62 points at 1,440 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 5 to 2,464.
Investors are focused on the upcoming holiday. The U.S. stock market is closed Friday, although commodities will trade electronically and the Treasury market will hold an abbreviated 2-hour morning session.
"Trading is very, very quiet today," said Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates. "I'm envisioning fairly narrow trading ranges. I would be surprised if there were moves of more than 30 basis points on any of the averages."
"That doesn't mean that there is nothing to be concerned about," given that China raised its reserve requirement for the nation's banks, he said. "But I don't see many investors acting on the news ahead of the nonfarm payroll report.
Overnight, China's central bank tightened its monetary policy by lifting its reserve requirements for banks by 50 basis points.
"It appears that the market is content to go into the weekend poised below the old highs and let earnings determine the next move, next week," said Marc Pado, chief U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.
The first-quarter earnings season will begin in earnest next week, with results from aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. .
There was limited market reaction to news from the Labor Department that weekly jobless claims rose 11,000 to 321,000 in the latest week, marking the highest level since March 3. However, the four-week average of new claims fell by 1,500 to 315,750, the lowest since Feb. 3.
The claims figures arrived ahead of Friday's eagerly awaited nonfarm payroll report for March.
Bad weather in February contributed to the weak total of 97,000 new jobs created that month. For March, economists surveyed by MarketWatch say the return to more-normal weather probably boosted hiring. The median forecast from the survey points to payroll growth of about 168,000 in March.
Stocks on the move
Micron Technology stock was down 3.4% at $11.66. The producer of semiconductor devices took a $52 million loss in its second quarter and was cut to sell by Goldman Sachs. But during a conference call, its executives said that prices for memory chips have stabilized.
In other technology news, Dell Inc. on Wednesday said it wouldn't file its annual report on time because it hasn't finished an internal investigation into its past accounting practices. The personal computer maker delayed filing its second-quarter and third-quarter reports last year because of the internal probe and has yet to file those reports.
Shares of Dell were up 4 cents at $23.38.
Take Two Interactive Software revealed in a filing Wednesday that a U.S. probe of stock options practices has turned into a formal regulatory investigation. That stock gave up opening gains to trade down 7 cents at $21.28.
Nokia Corp. agreed to pay Qualcomm Inc. $20 million in the second quarter for using Qualcomm's UMTS license, in what sets a precedent for a larger patent dispute between the two firms. The stock was 1.3% higher at $23.64.
Barnes & Noble Inc. said its special committee found "numerous instances" of improper backdating after reviewing more than 3,300 employees who received stock options from 1996 through 2006. The book retailer said the committee didn't find any intent to defraud, as the dating and pricing practice for stock options was applied uniformly and was not used selectively to benefit any one group or individual.
Shares of the bookseller rose 1.3% cents to $40.33.
Other markets
The British pound was under pressure after the Bank of England left itkey rate unchanged at 5.25%. Some market players had expected the central bank to lift rates. The pound last was down 0.2% at $1.9714.
The dollar fell 0.1% to 118.57 yen as the euro gained 0.5% to $1.3434.
Treasurys ticked lower. Friday's unemployment report is expected to be a big factor in the bond market. The benchmark 10-year note last was down 1/32 at 99-24/32 with a yield of 4.657%.
Crude futures were lower after in-line natural gas data. The May crude contract was down 58 cents at $63.80.
Gold futures were well above $670 an ounce, as traders appeared unwilling to sell the metal ahead of the holiday. Gold for June delivery rose $2.60 to $674.70 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
By Leslie Wines