NEW
YORK: U.S. stocks mostly rose on Thursday, with the S&P 500 hitting
a record after better-than-expected jobless claims data ahead of
Friday's all important nonfarm payrolls report.
Boosting appetite
for riskier assets, the European Central Bank decided not to take any
action at its meeting on Thursday because economic and monetary
conditions had not changed enough to warrant it. The euro hit its
highest level against the U.S. dollar since late December.
Investors'
focus shifted to Friday's employment data, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, which
is likely to show job growth in the U.S. picked up enough in February to
encourage the Federal Reserve to continue to scale back its monetary
stimulus. But the gain was likely to be tepid given the unrelentingly
harsh winter.
"There isn't much action today in terms of direction
and volume on caution ahead of the jobs report tomorrow," said Ryan
Detrick, analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, Ohio.
With
less than a hour left in trading, about 4.9 billion shares traded on
U.S. exchanges, according to data from BATS Global Markets, below the
daily average of about 7 billion in the past month.
The biggest
gainers were stocks in basic materials, financial and industrial
sectors, often associated with strong economic fundamentals. The S&P
basic materials index was up 0.4 percent, the S&P financial index
was up 0.8 percent and the S&P industrials index was up 0.5 percent.
But
the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.2 percent, led lower by Staples, which lost 15
percent to $11.39. The largest U.S. office supplies retailer forecast a
decline in sales. Staples also said it would close up to 225 stores in
the United States and Canada by 2015.
The Dow Jones industrial
average rose 71.49 points or 0.44 percent, to 16,431.67, the S&P 500
gained 4.1 points or 0.22 percent, to 1,877.91 and the Nasdaq Composite
dropped 5.914 points or 0.14 percent, to 4,352.06.
Crimea's
parliament voted to join Russia and its Moscow-backed government set a
referendum for 10 days' time on the decision in a dramatic escalation of
the crisis in the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula.
U.S. President
Barack Obama took steps to punish those involved in threatening Ukraine
while European Union leaders agreed to suspend visa and investment talks
with Russia.
An index of Moscow stocks lost more than 2 percent
after the vote in Crimea, but pared the losses and closed down 1
percent. The rouble weakened 0.4 percent versus the U.S. dollar. A
U.S.-traded Russian ETF fell 1.3 percent to $23.37.
With the
S&P 500 at a record and lingering tensions between Ukraine and
Russia, investors turned to the options market for hedges against a
market decline. The S&P 500 climbed to an all-time intraday high of
1,881.94 earlier in the session.
Put buying in the SPDR S&P
500 ETF continued, with the weekly $185 and $187 strikes that expire
Friday garnering the most interest as of Wednesday's close, according to
Schaeffer's Investment Research. The ETF was up 0.3 percent at $188.22.
Costco
Wholesale Corp was down 1.8 percent at $114 after the warehouse
retailer reported a bigger-than-expected 15 percent fall in quarterly
profit as unusually deep discounting in the holiday shopping season hurt
margins.
Weekly applications for U.S. unemployment insurance fell
to 323,000, the lowest in three months, a sign of strength in a labor
market that has been hobbled by severe weather. New orders for U.S.
factory goods, however, fell more than expected in January and shipments
also slipped, adding to signs of a recent slowdown in manufacturing
activity.
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