NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
U.S. stocks closed modestly higher Wednesday, in a choppy, light trading day ahead of Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday.
The Nasdaq composite (up 10.27 to 1953.31, Charts) gained 0.5 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 (up 4.56 to 1058.45, Charts) index gained 0.4 percent, and the Dow Jones industrial average (up 15.63 to 9779.57, Charts) gained 0.1 percent. Bonds fell, as did the dollar versus other major currencies, sending commodities' prices higher.
Stock markets will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving, and will close early, at 1:00 p.m. ET, Friday.
The Treasury bond market closed early Wednesday, will remain closed Thanksgiving Day, and will close early again the day after. Commodities markets also closed early Wednesday, and will remain closed on the holiday Thursday and also Friday.
"There's no economic news due Friday, no earnings, and not many people are going to be around," said Peter Green, a market analyst at MKM Partners. "We could gain a little Friday if the seasonal tendencies kick in, but it won't be a significant move. I don't think this week is indicative of what's going on in the market generally."
Due to the holiday-shortened trading week, nine economic reports that normally would have been spread out between Wednesday and Friday were all released Wednesday.
Reports showing continued recovery in the job market, consumer sentiment, manufacturing and a rise in durable goods orders competed with weaker showings on personal spending and new home sales, leaving investors in a bit of a state of information overload.
"So much of this economic news has been anticipated that you're not going to get much reaction either way, to better than expected news, or to something that misses estimates," said John Hughes, a market analyst at Shields & Co.
Reports mostly upbeat
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment last week fell to 351,000, which was lower than the previous week and a bigger drop than economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected. Also on a positive note, durable goods orders for October posted their biggest gain in 16 months, well above economists' estimates.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for November was upwardly revised to 93.7 from an initial reading of 93.5, slightly below the 94 economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected, but still well above the 89.6 in October.
The Purchasing Managers Index for the Midwest region, the Chicago PMI, rose to 96.1 in November from 55 in October and above the 56.5 reading economists had expected.
October personal income and spending reports were less upbeat, showing that income grew but spending was pretty flat with the previous month.
Additionally, new home sales in October fell to an annualized rate of 1.105 million units, down from 1.145 million in the previous month. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected a drop to 1.138 million units.
A few standout stocks were on the move.
Wyeth (WYE: up $2.40 to $40.15, Research, Estimates) shares gained 6.3 percent, after the company won a case brought by a patient who alleged that she suffered heart injuries as a result of using the diet drug fen-phen, Reuters reported. The fallout from fen-phen has caused the drugmaker to take $16.6 billion in charges so far.
Xerox (XRX: up $0.51 to $11.95, Research, Estimates) added 4.4 percent, continuing to gain after a pair of brokerage notes Tuesday highlighted the company's earnings growth prospects for 2005.
On the Dow, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ: down $0.99 to $49.70, Research, Estimates) lost nearly 2 percent one session after regulators raised concerns about complications associated with its highly-lucrative drug-coated stents.
In deal news, J.P. Morgan (JPM: down $0.02 to $35.51, Research, Estimates) said it will pay $380 million in cash to buy Citigroup's (C: up $0.04 to $46.95, Research, Estimates) benefits payments provider unit, as a means of beefing up its public sector services options.
Market breadth was positive, on light volume, with advancers edging decliners on the New York Stock Exchange by more than two to one, as 1.09 billion shares changed hands. On the Nasdaq, where 1.51 billion shares traded, winners edged losers by more than nine to seven.
Treasury prices fell, pushing the yield on the 10-year note up to 4.25 percent from 4.18 percent late Tuesday. The dollar continued to fall against the euro and the yen, which analysts cited as very worrisome.
NYMEX light sweet crude oil gained 64 cents to settle at $30.41 a barrel. COMEX gold gained $5.60 to settle at $398 an ounce.
In global trade, markets in Europe closed mostly lower and Asian stocks ended higher.
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