NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Falling oil prices failed to rev up a wary stock market Thursday morning, with stocks languishing after reports showed a jump in the trade gap and a smaller-than-forecast drop in jobless claims.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 13.93 to 10,202.98, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 (down 1.61 to 1,176.07, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (down 2.36 to 2,035.11, Charts) all edged lower.

On Wednesday, the three major gauges slid to five-month lows following Apple's disappointing sales report. Inflation worries were also a factor. Such worries have weighed on stock markets for the last two weeks, causing a broader selloff.

Not helping inflation-worried investors was the August trade gap report, released in the morning.

The U.S. trade deficit rose to $59 billion in the month, reflecting the impact of rising oil prices, versus $58 billion in July. Economists were expecting an even bigger rise to $59.5 billion, according to Briefing.com forecasts.

A separate report showed a smaller-than-expected decline in weekly jobless claims last week.

U.S. light crude oil for November delivery fell 25 cents to $63.87 ahead of the weekly oil inventory report, due at 10:30 a.m. ET.

In corporate news, Google (up $0.11 to $301.08, Research) and Comcast (down $0.17 to $27.75, Research) are in discussions with Time Warner about buying a minority stake in the company's America Online unit for as much as $5 billion, a source close to the situation told CNN/Money. Time Warner is the parent of CNN/Money.

Treasury prices fell, raising the 10-year note yield to 4.47 percent from 4.44 percent late Wednesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The dollar gained versus the euro and yen.

COMEX gold fell $3 to $473.60 an ounce.

In global trade, most major Asian markets ended higher, while European markets fell at midday.