Stocks turn higher after open

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks turned higher after a lower start to trading Thursday as investors considered some disappointing retail sales but awaited a plan to combat the subprime mortgage crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average eased 0.1 percent. The Nasdaq composite index was less than a point lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 0.1 percent.

Among stocks in the news Thursday: Toll Brothers (Charts, Fortune 500), Wal-Mart Stores (Charts, Fortune 500), Target (Charts, Fortune 500), Coca-Cola (Charts, Fortune 500), Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (Charts) and Eli Lilly (Charts, Fortune 500).

The Wall Street Journal reported that Citigroup (Charts, Fortune 500), Bank of America (Charts, Fortune 500) and JP Morgan Chase (Charts, Fortune 500), the nation's three largest banks that are working together to assemble a so-called "super fund" aimed at helping to ease the global credit crunch, are scaling back its size to only half of the planned $100 billion due to a lack of interest from financial firms that are supposed to benefit from the plan.

The continued weakness in housing was shown when luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers (Charts, Fortune 500) said it swung to a loss in the fourth quarter due to a $200 million writedown in the value of its holdings. That caused it report a net loss of $81.8 million, or 52 cents a share, its first in 21 years as a public company but less than the forecasts. The nation's No. 7 builder by revenue said the risk of further writedowns and continued weakness in sales and prices did not allow it to give guidance for the current fiscal year.

In global trade, major markets in Asia ended the session higher. European stocks rose in morning trading. Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM said Thursday it has offered to buy struggling Italian airline Alitalia.