NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market gave up an early gain Thursday as economic reports gave investors a mixed picture on the outlook for growth.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 11 points at 13,401 as of 11:32 a.m. EST after rising as much as 54 points at the start of trading. The Standard & Poor's 500 added two points to 1,463, after rising as much as eight. The Nasdaq composite fell 3 points to 3,102.
European Central Bank head Mario Draghi says the struggling euro area should start growing again later this year, but warned that the region has yet to reach a turning point in its struggle with recession and handling its government debt load. The comments bolstered expectations that the worst of the region's crisis may be behind it.
Investors were also cheered by a report that showed China may gradually be emerging from its worst economic downturn since the 2008 global crisis, with export growth for the world's second-largest economy rebounding strongly in December.
That good news was offset by a U.S. government report that weekly applications for unemployment benefits ticked up last week. The Labor Department said applications rose 4,000 to 371,000, the most in five weeks. The previous week's total was revised lower.
Ford was among the gainers, rising 27 cents to $13.74 after the company doubled its quarterly dividend to 10 cents, just nine months after paying its first dividend in more than five years.
U.S. companies are sitting on record cash piles, having rebuilt their balance sheets following the financial crisis that started five years ago. Analysts at Deutsche Bank predict that corporations will stop adding to those cash piles this year and instead start returning more cash to shareholders, helping push the S&P 500 up to 1,575 by the end of the year. That would be a 10 percent increase from where it ended 2012.
Supervalu Inc. rose 27 cents to $3.31 after announcing that it had reached a $3.3 billion deal to sell its five of its biggest grocery chains — Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's and Star Market — to an investor group led by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.
Stocks are up on the year after lawmakers reached a last-minute compromise to stop the U.S. going over the "fiscal cliff," a series of tax hikes and government spending cuts that could have pushed the economy back into recession. A good start to the earnings season this week has also helped bolster demand.
While the budget deal tackled taxes, it only put off the so-called sequestration, or spending cuts, that were part of the fiscal cliff threat.
Investors will wait on the sidelines and stocks are unlikely to make substantial gains until lawmakers have comprehensively dealt with that issue, said Ben Schwarz, chief market strategist at Light Speed Financial.
"Everybody gave each other high fives, running up and down in Washington because they did the fiscal cliff, but the big deal is about to come and smack them upside their head, all the real issues that they didn't want to deal with," Schwarz said. "Most people are now thinking better to be safe than sorry."
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose 4 basis points to 1.90 percent. The yield on the note, which rises as bonds fall, has jumped almost 30 basis points in the past month.
Other stocks making big moves:
— Urban Outfitters rose $1.79 to $42.53 after the company said that it had record sales for the two months ending in December.
— Jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. sank $2.38 to $60.88 after reporting that its sales increased during the critical holiday shopping season at a slower pace than previously expected. The company said its full-year earnings would come in at the low end of its prior forecast.
