U.S. Stocks Post Modest Gains At The Start
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks on Thursday opened higher, building on momentum from Wednesday's late-session rise, Citigroup Inc.'s upgrade of Cisco Systems Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd.'s upbeat forecast.
Stock futures briefly added to their gains after the government reported a drop in weekly U.S. jobless claims, but they settled back to previous levels soon after. The Labor Department also revised the previous week's claims count higher, offering up a mixed view of the employment picture. .
"The continued deterioration in this series suggests that firms have moved from not hiring to outright firing. We look for nonfarm payrolls to rise by a paltry 35,000 in February," said Drew Matus, an economist at Lehman Brothers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 64.48 points to 12,491.74.
The S&P 500 rose 8 points to stand at 1,366.46, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 22.82 points to 2,349.92.
Early commodities trading saw gold and platinum futures hitting new highs, with gold touching $952.40 an ounce before paring gains to $948.8 an ounce. April platinum futures also hit a record of $2,194.80 an ounce and were last trading up $26.30 at $2,165.10 an ounce.
Stocks had another roller-coaster session on Wednesday, closing higher as investors shrugged off U.S. economic data that signaled rising inflation.
Data still on tap Thursday include a reading of leading economic indicators for January as well as the latest Philly Fed survey, both slated for release at 10 a.m. Eastern.
Shares of computer networking equipment maker Cisco are likely to rise after its upgrade to buy from hold at Citigroup.
In other broker news, BP was cut to sell from hold at Citigroup, ahead of the oil giant's Feb. 27 strategy day. The broker said that it believes relative earnings forecasts and ratings for the firm now fully discount a recovery in 2008/9 but do not price in the potential risks of a deeper structural shortfall.
Shares of Research In Motion gained in pre-open trading after the maker of the Blackberry email phone said it expects net subscriber account additions in the fourth quarter to be 15% to 20% higher than the 1.82 million it had previously forecast.
The bond-insurance sector will be back in focus as well. MBIA spurned a plan put forth by hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman to split up struggling insurers, saying it's mainly designed to boost Ackman's negative bets against itself and rival Ambac Financial Group .
In deal news, ChoicePoint Inc. has agreed to be bought by U.K. publishing group Reed Elsevier for $4.1 billion, including $600 million of assumed debt. The $50-a-share deal represents a 49% premium to Wednesday's closing price for ChoicePoint.
By Kate Gibson