Daily Financial News - Mortgage | Real Estate | Stock Market

Dow Positive For 2010 - CNNMoney.com -- Stocks ended a volatile session higher Thursday as investors welcomed improved retail sales and a report showing that the pace of job losses is slowing, ahead of Friday's big government employment report.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 47 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 index added 4 points or 0.4% and the Nasdaq composite gained 11 points or 0.5%.

The strong dollar dragged on dollar-traded commodities as well as on shares of companies that do a lot of business overseas, and therefore benefit from a weaker dollar.

Treasurys Mixed Ahead of Jobs Report - CNNMoney.com -- Investors shifted money from short-term to longer term Treasurys Thursday as they digested a mildly positive report on unemployment claims and tensions eased over Greece's debt.

What prices are doing: The benchmark 10-year note was up 5/32 to 100-6/32 and its yield fell to 3.60% from 3.62%. Showing even stronger growth than the 10-year note, the 30-year bond rose 17/32 to 101-5/32 and its yield dropped to 4.56%.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Meanwhile, notes at the shorter end of the curve dropped. The 2-year note fell 3/32 to 100-1/32 with a yield of 2.28%. The 5-year note fell 1/32 to 100-16/32 with a yield of 2.28%

Unemployment Claims Drop - The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance fell last week, the government said Thursday.

There were 469,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Feb. 27, the lowest level since Jan. 9 and down 29,000 from a revised 498,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report.

A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected new claims to drop to 470,000.

The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 470,750, down 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 474,250.