Stocks edge higher despite oil concerns

NEW YORK - Stocks managed modest gains Thursday as investors saw a series of corporate acquisitions as a chance to pick up bargains in an otherwise difficult market. Another record high for oil prices muted the gains.

General Electric Co.'s $1.6 billion investment in a Turkish bank and Johnson Controls Inc.'s takeover of York International Corp. assured investors that corporate America is still willing to spend money to expand, even in uncertain economic times.

Yet oil again weighed on investors.

"Oil prices at these levels are providing all kinds of dislocation issues for stocks," said Joseph Battipaglia, the chief investment officer at Ryan Beck & Co. "Earnings and the economic data are OK, but with oil where it is, the market is unable to make a decision, long or short, and there's certainly no real catalyst for buying."

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 15.76, or 0.15 percent, to 10,450.63.

Broader stock indicators also closed slightly higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.78, or 0.23 percent, to 1,212.37, and the Nasdaq composite index climbed 5.46, or 0.26 percent, to 2,134.37.

A drop in unemployment claims also helped spur buying. The Labor Department reported that first-time jobless claims dropped by 4,000 to 315,000 last week, and that the four-week average of claims fell to its lowest level in four years.

Yet oil remained the focus, and some analysts wondered whether the markets could stage any kind of substantive rally with crude futures at record levels and the Federal Reserve undeterred in its policy of slow, steady interest increases.