U.S. AVERAGES

Traders responded negatively to a continued jump in the price of oil. On Thursday, the price of oil saw further upside movement in early trading, reaching a new record intraday high of $65.30 a barrel. While the price of oil has pulled back off its high since then, it currently hovers around high levels.

The slower than expected retail sales growth pointed to notable declines in sales at furniture and home furnishings stores and department stores. Sales at gasoline stations saw a notable increase, rising 2.4% on higher gas prices.

In another report, the Labor Department said the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits declined last week by 6,000 - the first drop in three weeks - to 308,000.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 4.37% from 4.39% late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp. are expected to put on further gains, helped by the rise in oil.

Whirlpool Corp. made an aggressive move to secure the deal to acquire rival Maytag Corp. by boosting its offer for a third time to $1.79 billion, or $21 a share. Including the assumption of $977 million of Maytag debt, the entire deal was valued at $2.7 billion.

Target (TGT: chart) was 2.4% higher at $56.85 after the retailer's quarterly earnings beat views by 2 cents a share.

Yahoo (YHOO: chart) was 24 cents higher at $34.43 on news for its expansion into the Chinese market. The company Thursday entered a $1 billion deal for a 40% stake in Alibaba.com.

Health care sector climbed to the upside, benefiting from a rebound in biotech and a 4.4% increase in Hospira's shares, after the company's earnings beat forecasts and Hospira boosted its fiscal year outlook.

Utilities have shown relative strength amid a recovery in bonds, while tech stocks have recently dipped into the red.

ECONOMIC NEWS

The Commerce Deptartment report showed that retail sales rose 1.8% in July following a 1.7% increase in June. Economists had been expecting sales growth of about 2.4 percent.

The growth that was seen was largely due to a significant increase in sales of motor vehicles and parts, which rose 6.7% in July after rising 4.6% in June. Excluding auto sales, overall sales rose by 0.3% in July, below economist estimates of 0.6% growth.

The Department of Labor released its report on initial jobless claims in the week ended August 6, showing an unexpected decline.

The report said that initial jobless claims fell to 308,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 314,000. Economists had been expecting claims to increase to 315,000 from the 312,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The Labor Dept. also said that the four-week moving average fell to 309.250 from the previous week's revised average of 316,500. This extends a recent downward move for the less volatile moving average, which has reached its lowest level since February.

Additionally, the report also showed that continuing claims for the week ended July 30 fell to 2.573 million from the preceding week's unrevised level of 2.581 million.

Business inventories in June 2005 were $1,300.0 billion, virtually unchanged from May, but up 5.9% from June 2004. Sales were $1,006.3 billion, up 0.7% from last month and up 7.8% from one year ago.