U.S. MARKET AVERAGES

In another light trading session, U.S. stock averages started slightly higher but with very little news to boost their way up, they lost direction and settled near the unchanged mark.

Three economic reports were released during the morning session, but investors paid did little in response to economic data. The Labor Department reported that first-time jobless claims rose by an expected 4,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 322,000. In another report, the National Associations of Realtors said that existing home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.97 million units in Nov from a 7.09 million unit rate in Oct, slightly below estimates. The Department of Energy said that crude oil inventories rose by 100,000 barrels for the week ended Dec 23 from 322.5 million last week, while gasoline stockpiles fell1.2 million barrels.

Energy prices rose after the weekly inventory data with a barrel of light crude quoted at $60.45, up 63 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Dow Transportation Average rose by about 1.3%, boosted by gains in airline and trucking stocks. Energy stocks started showing modest gains, following the weekly petroleum report.

Tech stocks showed some weakness with the computer hardware and networking sectors showing modest losses and the disk drive sector sitting below the unchanged mark as well.

Celgene (CELG: chart) climbed after announcing FDA approval of its REVLIMID drug, continuing its advance from yesterday and climbing to a new 52-week high. M-Flex (MFLX: chart) broke to a new peak on uplifted Q1 guidance.

Bottomline Technologies (EPAY: chart) dropped to a new 52-week low on an analyst downgrade. Shanda Interactive Entertainment (SNDA: chart) continued its decline to reach a new low.

In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 12.26, or 0.11%.The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 1.44, or 0.11%, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.29, or 0.01%.

Bonds were little changed, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.38% from 4.37% late Wednesday.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Warner Music Group Corp (WMG: chart) plans to pay a quarterly dividend of 13 cents a share, or $19.3 million in total on Feb. 14. Warner Music previously announced that it will pay regular quarterly dividends totaling up to $80 million a year. The stock rose 1%.

Christopher & Banks Corp. (CBK: chart), the Minneapolis women's-clothing retailer, reported sales for the four weeks ended Dec. 24 rose 9% to $60.2 million from $55.1 million in the year-earlier period. December same-store sales rose 2%. During the Thanksgiving-through-Christmas period, CBK said, gift-card sales increased to 11 million from 9 million, indicating a 22% increase. The company’s shares advanced 1.2%

ECONOMIC NEWS

Crude oil inventories recorded another build in the latest week, according to government statistics released Thursday, though the advance was far more modest than in the previous week. Stocks of gasoline and distillate fuel oil declined during the period.

The Department of Energy revealed that crude oil inventories ticked up by 100,000 barrels for the week ended December 23, climbing to 322.6 million barrels from the prior week's level of 322.5 million barrels. This followed an advance of 1.3 million barrels in the previous week. Oil inventories were 12.6% higher than their levels of the same time last year.

Gasoline inventories posted a week-over-week decline of 1.2 million barrels, the government said, compared to the previous week's slide of 300,000 barrels. Gasoline stocks were 6% below their levels of last year. Inventories of distillate fuel oil fell by 900,000 barrels in the most recent week.

The National Associations of Realtors released its report on existing home sales in the month of November on Thursday, showing that sales fell slightly more than economist had been expecting.

The report showed that existing home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.97 million units in November from a 7.09 million unit rate in October. Economists had been expecting sales to fall to a 7.00 million unit rate.

The report also showed that the national median existing-home price came in at $215,000 in November, up 13.2 percent year-over-year.

Additionally, total housing inventory levels rose 1.2 percent to 2.90 million existing homes for sale at the end of November, a 5-month supply at the current sales pace.