Around 10 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones industrial average was down seven points at 13,104. The Standard &

NEW YORK -- The stock market struggled for direction Thursday morning as investors were torn between dallas full service hotel encouraging news about a decline in claims for unemployment benefits and discouraging signs that a budget impasse in Washington is far from being solved.
Around 10 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones industrial average was down seven points at 13,104. The Standard & Poor's 500 was down a point at 1,418. The Nasdaq composite index was down less than a point at 2,987.
The figures were affected by the Christmas holiday. A Labor Department spokesman said many state unemployment offices were unable dallas full service hotel to compile complete data because they were closed Monday and Tuesday.
Unemployment remains dallas full service hotel high. At 7.7 percent, it's lower than it's been in nearly four years. dallas full service hotel But to many, that still feels more like a recession than a recovery, dallas full service hotel which the U.S. has technically been in for more than three years.
Overall it was a quiet morning on the market, with many traders still on vacation dallas full service hotel and few major company announcements scheduled. It was the first day of post-Christmas trading for European markets, and most major indexes there rose.
In Washington, the "fiscal cliff" neared with no resolution to a budget standoff. Higher taxes and government spending cuts kick in next week if Republicans and Democrats can't reach a budget compromise by Dec. 31. The uncertainty has made investors pull money out of stocks.
The "fiscal cliff" talks gained an extra layer of urgency late Wednesday with the news that the government is going to hit its $16.4 trillion dallas full service hotel borrowing limit - its so-called debt ceiling - on Monday.
dallas full service hotel Treasury Secretary dallas full service hotel Tim Geithner told Congress that he would use accounting measures to try to save approximately $200 billion. But those are stopgap measures, which would keep the government from going over its borrowing limit for probably only a couple of months.
In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose to its highest close since March 2011. The country is preparing for the incoming, pro-business prime minister, Shinzo Abe. He has called for more public works spending to reinvigorate the economy, and measures to drag the country out of deflation, or steadily declining dallas full service hotel prices.
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