Whipsaw Wednesday on Wall St.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks swayed in choppy trade Wednesday morning, as investors welcomed falling oil prices and upbeat news out of Dell and Alcoa, but showed some caution amid weakness in General Motors.

The Nasdaq composite (up 3.03 to 2,457.87, Charts) hovered just above unchanged around 90 minutes into the session, after ending the previous session at its highest level since February 2001.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 2.73 to 12,318.86, Charts) lost a few points. The broader S&P 500 (up 1.06 to 1,403.87, Charts) index was little changed, after ending the previous session at a six-year high.

Stocksopened higher, before seesawing in response to the morning's economic news and an about-face in the price of oil, following a surprisingly strong weekly oil inventories report.

Stocks were expected to remain volatile throughout the session, due to lower-than-usual volume, with many Wall Street professionals checking out early ahead of Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday.

All financial markets are closed Thursday for the holiday, and close early Friday.

U.S. light crude oil for January delivery slumped $1.17 to $59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, following the inventories report.

Stocks managed slim gains Tuesday, with investors hampered by surging oil prices.

But with oil prices lower Wednesday, investors were able to focus on the mostly upbeat corporate news, Dell's preliminary earnings report, released late Tuesday.

Dell (up $2.42 to $27.24, Charts) reported higher quarterly earnings that topped estimates on revenue that was just short of estimates. Earnings were initially expected last week, but were delayed because of an accounting probe.

Dell shares jumped more than 10 percent Wednesday morning.

Dow component Alcoa (up $1.16 to $30.35, Charts) climbed 3.7 percent Wednesday after saying late Tuesday that it would cut its work force by about 10 percent, and spin off one of its businesses as part of a broader restructuring.

But fellow Dow stock General Motors (down $0.87 to $31.74, Charts) lost about 3 percent, falling for the third straight session. The automaker said Wednesday it is dropping plans to develop a new group of minivans and will instead focus on its crossover SUVs.

The stock has been under pressure lately amid speculation about what billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian may do, now that the moratorium that had prevented his Tracinda Corp. from trading GM for 45 days has been lifted, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Among other movers, MGM (up $4.61 to $53.61, Charts) rallied 8 percent on news that Tracinda Corp. plans to up its stake in the casino operator to 61.7 percent from 56.3 percent.

Investors also kept an eye on the day's economic news.

Weekly jobless claims rose by a greater-than-expected 12,000 last week to 321,000. However, the report still showed a healthy labor market.

The November consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan was revised downward to 92.1 from an initial read of 92.3. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would rise to 93.

Treasury bond prices inched higher, with the yield on the 10-year note standing at 4.57 percent, little changed from late Tuesday.

COMEX gold gained $4.20 to $632.90 an ounce.

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