December 24, 2014- Stocks Edge Higher Pulling Back in Shortened Holiday Session

After seeing modest strength for much of the session, stocks gave back ground going into the close of trading on Wednesday. Despite the late-day pullback, the Dow managed to end the session at a new record closing high. The Dow inched up 6.04 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 18,030.21, while the Nasdaq rose 8.05 points or 0.2 percent to 4,773.47. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 slipped into the red in the final minutes of trading, edging down 0.29 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 2,081.88. The modest strength seen for most of the day was partly due to the release of a report from the Labor Department showing an unexpected drop in initial jobless claims in the week ended December 20th. The report said initial jobless claims fell to 280,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 289,000, while economists had expected claims to inch up to 290,000.