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Stocks post slim gains
Major gauges inch higher in the early going despite weaker than expected retail sales, oil woes.
August 11, 2005: 9:55 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Stocks inched higher early Thursday as investors took in stride a weaker-than-expected read on retail sales and oil prices near new records.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 19.11 to 10,613.52, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 (up 3.28 to 1,232.41, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (up 4.13 to 2,161.94, Charts) all added a few points in the early going.

July retail sales rose 1.8 percent, the Commerce Department reported Thursday morning, after rising 1.7 percent in June. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected sales to rise 2 percent. Sales excluding autos rose 0.3 percent, versus expectations for a rise of 0.6 percent.

Stocks had slipped Wednesday as investors eyed record trading and closing highs for oil prices.

U.S. light crude oil for September delivery briefly touched a record trading high of $65.30 a barrel in electronic trading, before scaling back. On Wednesday, crude settled at $64.90 on the NYMEX, a record closing high.

In earnings news, Target (up $1.36 to $56.90, Research) reported earnings Thursday morning of 61 cents per share, up from a year earlier and more than expected.

News Corp (up $0.45 to $17.89, Research) reported earnings of 22 cents per share late Wednesday, up from a year ago, and more than expected.

CEO Rupert Murdoch also said that the company was in advanced talks to buy a search engine. Additionally, News Corp said it will extend its "poison pill" takeover defense for two more years after failing to secure a selection of its shares held by Liberty Media.

In other news, Yahoo! (up $0.33 to $34.52, Research) said it will pay $1 billion in cash for a 40 percent stake in Chinese Internet auctioneer Alibaba.com, making what analysts said was a big jump in the world's second-largest Internet market.

Intel (down $0.32 to $26.56, Research) shares fell after it was downgraded by a brokerage, Reuters reported.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 4.37 percent from 4.39 percent late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and the yen.

COMEX gold rose $2.20 to settle at $442.00 an ounce.  Top of page

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