U.S. stocks flat ahead of jobs report

Associated Press photo by RICHARD DREWThomas Facchine, second from right, calls out share prices during the IPO of AVG Technologies, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday. U.S. stocks were little changed on Thursday, as a mixed bag of retail sales reports and unemployment claims data failed to push stocks in either direction.

NEW YORK — Investors coasted on Thursday, leaving stocks unchanged while they looked ahead to Friday for a major jobs report. U.S. government bonds hardly moved, and neither did European stocks.

U.S. stocks rose slightly in the morning after the Labor Department said the four-week average of unemployment claims fell to 375,750, the lowest since June 2008 and enough to suggest a steadily improving job market.

The more important numbers come Friday, when the government releases the number of jobs created in January and the unemployment rate. In December, the country added 200,000 jobs, and the rate was 8.5 percent.

Last year, investors were so worried about a financial disaster in Europe that U.S. companies with strong earnings have been undervalued, said Tim Courtney, chief investment officer of Burns Advisory Group in Oklahoma City.

Now, he said, stock prices are catching up. The S&P is up 5.4 percent this year, the Dow 4 percent.

“Right now the market is going up just on the absence of bad news, on the absence of that worst-case scenario materializing,” he said.

U.S. mining stocks rose after British mining company Xstrata PLC confirmed it is in merger discussions with commodities trader Glencore International PLC. In the U.S., Newmont Mining Corp. rose 1.9 percent, Alcoa was up 2.2 percent, and iron ore and coal miner Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. rose 0.3 percent.

The deal is a signal to investors that mining companies are trading at low prices compared with the commodities they mine, said Nathan Rowader, director of investments at Forward Management in San Francisco.

Retailers were a patchwork of rising and falling stocks, reflecting their patchwork of January sales results. Costco and Target came in better than expected. Macy’s and Dillard’s fell short. Costco rose 2.8 percent, and Target rose 1.1 percent.

Gap rose 10.7 percent after revenue at its high-end Banana Republic stores rose 6 percent.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. fell 13.8 percent to a one-year low after it said higher markdowns and cotton costs mean its adjusted fourth-quarter profit and revenue will be less than analysts had expected.

In other news:

CIGNA: The health insurer dropped 3.4 percent after its earnings fell short of expectations as it absorbed higher corporate and medical costs.

GREEN MOUNTAIN COFFEE: The maker of Keurig cup coffee brewers rose a hot 24 percent after it said first-quarter revenue more than doubled, margins tripled, and net income rose more than 40-fold.

MASTERCARD: It rose 6.7 percent after adjusted profits beat Wall Street expectations.

STARWOOD HOTELS: The operator of Sheraton and Westin hotels fell 1.6 percent after it said its fourth-quarter profit dropped 51 percent because it set aside money for an unfavorable legal decision.

KELLOGG: It is showing signs of easing its way out of a two-year slump caused by high ingredient prices and manufacturing problems. The cereal maker reported that its net income rose 23 percent on revenue gains.

NYSE: The New York Stock Exchange and German exchange Deutsche Boerse have called off their planned merger, a day after the European Union said it would block the union.

CHRYSLER: Factory workers at Chrysler are getting $1,500 profit-sharing checks next month, a sign the automaker’s turnaround is succeeding.

SONY: Hammered by weak TV sales, a strong yen and production disruptions from flooding in Thailand, Sony reported a net loss of $2.1 billion for the October-December quarter and more than doubled its projected loss for the full fiscal year.

VIACOM: It posted a 65 percent drop in net income for the latest quarter, as it took a charge related to the “Rock Band” series of video games.

SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell’s top executives dismissed weaker than anticipated fourth-quarter earnings as a blip and said Europe’s biggest oil company would embark on a new program to boost production, with an eye-catching emphasis on U.S. natural gas.

UNILEVER: The company behind consumer staples like Lipton teas, Dove soaps and Magnum ice cream says 2011 profit was little changed from 2010, mostly due to high costs for raw materials.

ASTRAZENECA: The drug maker warned of a tough year ahead and says it’s cutting an additional 7.300 jobs.

ELECTROLUX: The Swedish appliance maker saw its profits plunge in the fourth quarter in an increasingly competitive market.