NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Falling crude oil prices and Treasury bond yields gave investors an impetus to push stocks higher Thursday afternoon, following a choppy morning hurt by a worrisome report on the housing market.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 19.29 to 12,153.97, Charts) clung to breakeven, with roughly 2-1/2 hours left in the session, after touching a new trading high in the early going. On Wednesday, the blue-chip barometer closed at a new record - a feat it has achieved in 12 of the last 17 sessions.

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The broader S&P 500 (up 4.99 to 1,387.21, Charts) index added around 0.2 percent, after ending Wednesday's session at a fresh almost 6-year high.

The tech-fueled Nasdaq composite (up 15.62 to 2,372.21, Charts) gained 0.5 percent, thanks to strength in Internet shares.

Stocks advanced at the open, declined after the new home sales report, and then recharged in the afternoon.

New home sales rose a surprisingly strong 5.3 percent in September. However, the median price of a new home slumped 9.7 percent from a year earlier, showing that the gains in overall sales were likely reflective of builders having to offer big price cuts.

Investors are worried that if the housing market collapses too rapidly, that will intensify the economic slowdown.

Tempering the impact of the housing reading was a report showing a much stronger-than-expected jump in durable goods orders in September.

"The housing number was concerning, but I don't think there's an economic scenario right now that's going to upset the stock market," said Barry Hyman, equity strategist at EKN Financial Services.

Hyman was referring to the extremely bullish sentiment regarding the economy that seems to be in place on Wall Street at the moment, with investors perhaps betting that as long as a so-called soft landing is on tap, stocks can handle it.

He said participants may be figuring that if the economy is slowing, interest rates will go down and that will push up stock valuations. Alternately, If the economy is strong, rates will increase a bit more, but so will earnings.

Nonetheless, any good rally could be vulnerable to a correction, and Hyman said tomorrow's third-quarter gross domestic product growth report poses the biggest near-term threat.

Stocks gained Wednesday after the Federal Reserve opted to hold a key short-term interest rate steady, as expected, and hinted in its statement that it would stand pat for the time being.

Both stock and bond investors seemed to respond positively to the statement, seeing it as an indication that the economy is slowing, but not heading for recession and that inflation is moderating.

Earnings news continued to impress, for the most part. Exxon Mobil reported the second largest profit ever for a U.S. company Thursday, thanks to still surging oil prices. Exxon (up $0.48 to $71.49, Charts) shares were modestly higher.

Comcast (up $1.22 to $39.98, Charts) reported higher earnings that topped estimates, thanks to a surge in subscriber growth. Shares of the cable operator gained 2.5 percent.

Fellow cable company Charter Communications (up $0.23 to $2.12, Charts) rose in tandem.

A number of Internet stocks bounced, including Yahoo! (up $0.64 to $25.13, Charts), eBay (up $0.88 to $32.96, Charts) and Amazon.com (up $0.58 to $38.26, Charts), which continued to benefit from its strong earnings report earlier in the week.

That gave a boost to the Goldman Sachs Internet (Charts) index.

But not all the corporate news was so positive.

Sprint Nextel (up $1.32 to $19.04, Charts) posted lower third-quarter profit and weaker-than-expected subscriber growth Thursday morning. However, shares rose 6 percent in active New York Stock Exchange trade, with investors focusing on the company's improved quarterly revenue and its pledge to turn around its wireless business.

Boeing (down $1.77 to $79.09, Charts), a Dow industrials component, lost another 3 percent, with investors continuing to express disappointment after the aerospace leader reported quarterly profit Wednesday that fell from a year earlier, and raised its 2007 earnings forecast to a range that was still shy of analysts' forecasts.

In addition, Red Hat (down $5.25 to $14.26, Charts), the Linux open source software distributor, slumped 28 percent and topped the Nasdaq's most-actives list. Red Hat was hit hard by late-Wednesday news out of Oracle that it will would offer half-price technical support to Red Hat Linux customers.

Symantec (down $1.31 to $19.47, Charts), a maker of security software, fell 7 percent in active Nasdaq trade after it posted earnings and issued an outlook late Wednesday that missed estimates.

Shares of Renovis (down $10.43 to $3.77, Charts) slumped more than 70 percent in unusually active Nasdaq trading after the biotech said a late-stage trial of its experimental stroke medicine had failed. The news prompted licensing partner AstraZeneca to halt development of the drug.

Swedish AstraZeneca (down $4.94 to $61.43, Charts)'s American-traded shares lost over 7 percent.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers three to two on volume of 1.09 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners by four to three on volume of 1.53 billion shares.

U.S. light crude oil for December delivery fell 35 cents to $61.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after climbing more than $2 Wednesday.

Falling bond yields helped stocks. Treasury prices rose for the second session, with the 10-year note yield falling to 4.72 percent from 4.76 percent late Wednesday. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.

COMEX gold for December delivery rose $7.90 to $598.70 an ounce.

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