Stocks stall after three days of gains

Click the chart for more market data. By Ken Sweet, contributing writerApril 28, 2011: 11:21 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks straddled the breakeven point Wednesday following disappointing reports on U.S. economic growth and weekly jobless claims.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 11 points, or 0.1%; S&P 500 (SPX) added 2 points; and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) was flat.

Boeing (BA, Fortune 500),DuPont (DD, Fortune 500) and Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) were the Dow’s biggest gainers. Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) was the biggest drag on the blue-chip index after it reported sales that fell short of forecasts. Exxon Mobil’s stock slid less than 1%.

After three days of gains, equities are taking a breather said traders.

“We’re just hanging in there at this point,” said Stephen Carl, head trader with Williams Capital. “There’s obviously no fuel to push stocks higher but we’re not selling off.”

Stocks hit fresh multi-year highs on Wednesday following Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s first post-policy meeting press conference.

Economy: On Thursday, the Department of Commerce released its report on first-quarter gross domestic product, showing that first-quarter GDP expanded at an annual rate of 1.8%.

That was a bit less than expected. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney had forecast an annual rate of growth of 2%.

The government also reported its weekly initial jobless claims data. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims totaled 429,000 last week.

That was worse than expected and also marked the third week in a row that jobless claims came in above the key 400,000 level.

A report from the National Association of Realtors showed a 5.1% rise in pending home sales for March, much higher than the 1.7% rise economists had expected.

Companies:Citrix Systems (CTXS) shares jumped 10% on Thursday, making it the best performer on the S&P 500, after the software supplier posted a strong jump in profits and higher-than-expected revenue.

After the closing bell, analysts expect Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) to post a quarterly profit of $4.8 billion, up 20% from a year earlier, on sales of $16.2 billion.

Exelon (EXC, Fortune 500) an electric utility, announced a merger with Constellation Energy (CEG, Fortune 500), a supplier of natural gas and other energy products. The deal is worth $7.9 billion. Constellation’s stock rose 4%.

World markets: European stocks rose in afternoon trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1%, the DAX in Germany added 0.8% and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.8%.

Asian markets ended mixed. Japan’s Nikkei index rallied 1.6%, but the Shanghai Composite dropped 1.3% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged down 0.4%.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar fell against the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound.

Oil for June delivery rose 37 cents to $113.13 a barrel.

Gold futures for June delivery rose $17.30 to $1,534.40 an ounce. Earlier, gold hit a new intraday record of $1,535.10 an ounce.

Silver jumped nearly 7% to $49.09 an ounce on Thursday.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 3.30% from 3.37% late Wednesday.  

First Published: April 28, 2011: 9:48 AM ET