NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks slipped Thursday morning, with investors using higher oil prices as an incentive to cash out of the recent rally.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 31.86 to 11,043.44, Charts), the S&P 500 (down 1.39 to 1,292.79, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (down 3.38 to 2,327.98, Charts) all inched lower in the early going.

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Stocks rose Wednesday in a late-session advance, with investors restarting the early 2006 rally. The Dow and S&P 500 have now gained six out of seven sessions and stand at more than 4-1/2 year highs. The Nasdaq has gained 7 sessions in a row and stands at a nearly 5-year high.

After such an advance, stocks were vulnerable to a little profit taking Thursday morning, particularly amid higher oil prices.

U.S. crude oil for February delivery rose 68 cents to $64.62 a barrel in electronic trading.

Investors also eyed the morning release of the November trade gap report, which showed a bigger-than-expected narrowing, due to a drop in oil prices in the month.

A separate report showed a rise in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment last week, that was nonetheless short of expectations.

Among early stock movers, J.P. Morgan Chase (unchanged at $40.70, Research) lost 1 percent after Piper Jaffray downgraded it to "market perform" from "outperform," according to the Wall Street Journal.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 4.43 percent from around 4.46 percent late Wednesday. Treasury bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

The dollar rose versus the euro and was little changed versus the yen.

COMEX gold for February delivery fell $5 to $545.10 an ounce.

In global trade, major Asian markets ended higher and European markets were mixed at midday.