NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Blue chips advanced in a choppy day of trading Wednesday while tech stocks slumped for the fifth straight session.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 25.05 to 11,005.74, Charts) and the Standard & Poor's 500 index (up 2.59 to 1,278.47, Charts) both rose about 0.2 percent, while the Nasdaq composite (down 0.92 to 2,267.46, Charts) finished a touch lower.

Inflation watch: • Unemployment rate lowest since 2001 • Are bigger paychecks around the corner? • Fed raises rates again

In after-hours trading, Tivo (Research) rose as much as 2 percent after the company said its loss narrowed in the fourth quarter while subscriptions rose.

NYSE Group, which surged in regular trading, kept up its streak after the market close by rising another 1 percent.

As of 5:30 p.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures pointed to a flat to positive open for stocks Thursday.

On tap for Thursday are readings on jobless claims and the trade balance, but neither is likely to move markets much.

Instead investors will likely be keeping their eyes on bond yields as they search for indications of when the Fed intends to halt its measured campaign of interest rate hikes.

Trading was volatile Wednesday, but a bright spot on the day was the NYSE Group (up $15.75 to $80.00, Research), which made a splash with its market debut. Shares surged 25 percent on the first day of trading in the exchange's 213-year history. The Big Board sealed its purchase of rival Archipelago Holdings on Tuesday, creating a new company worth more than $10 billion. (Full story.)

Stocks, which had been mired in negative territory most of the session, rallied in the afternoon, but gains were limited as investors remained on edge about the prospect of rising interest rates. Investors typically dislike rising rates because they raise the cost of borrowing for businesses, which can erode corporate earnings.

But analysts said the stock market's long-term outlook was upbeat. "I'm not reading too much into the past couple of trading days. The longer-term trend has for the most part been positive," Eugene Peroni, senior managing director at Claymore Advisors, said.

Crude futures tumbled 2.5 percent after a weekly inventory report showed U.S. crude stockpiles at their highest level in nearly 7 years.

U.S. light crude oil for April delivery fell $1.56 to settle at $60.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session the front-month contract had touched as low as $59.25 a barrel.

Twenty out of 30 Dow components posted gains, led by consumer goods firm Procter & Gamble (up $0.77 to $61.07, Research) and soft drinks giant Coke (up $0.43 to $42.23, Research).

Biotechs advanced, with the Amex Biotechnology index rising nearly 2 percent. Martek Biosciences (up $3.69 to $34.22, Research) jumped 12 percent after the nutritional and pharmaceutical products company reported quarterly results that topped estimates.

The Nasdaq Telecommunication index added nearly 1 percent.

Among the day's decliners, Google (down $10.57 to $353.88, Research) fell nearly 3 percent on the company's latest blunder. The tech bellwether said late Tuesday that slides showing sales projections were mistakenly posted on the Web during its recent analyst meeting.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers narrowly beat winners on volume of 1.8 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers on volume of 2.1 billion shares.

The price of the benchmark 10-note Treasury note eased, lifting the yield on the note to 4.74 percent from 4.73 percent late Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

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

COMEX gold fell $10.20 to $544.30 an ounce.

In global trade, major Asian and European markets ended lower.

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