Stocks Hold Gains After U.S. Jobs Data, German Confidence

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks closed up Thursday as data showed surprising resilience in German business confidence and further stabilization in U.S. jobless claims.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 46.1 points, 0.4%, at 12,984.8 after sinking by about 56 points earlier in the session. The S&P 500 was up 5.8 points, or 0.4%, at 1363.5. The Nasdaq finished higher by 23.8 points, or 0.8%, at 2957.

As stocks rebounded, Michael Gayed, chief investment strategist at Pension Partners, advised to "watch small-cap stocks, which have weakened in the past two weeks. If outperformance in the intraday continues in high beta areas and leadership resumes, new highs could soon follow." The small-cap Russell 2000 Index was rising 1.2%, compared to the S&P's increase of 0.2%, a full percentage difference.

If high-beta, small cap stocks continue to outperform low-beta, large cap stocks, that is a sign that the market is "internally sensing" risk-taking despite the gains already made, says Gayed. "Perhaps more gains are still coming," he surmised.

The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing unemployment claims for the first time in the week ended Feb. 18 was unchanged from the previous week's revised figure of 351,000. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a rise to 354,000 from an originally reported four-year low of 348,000.

The Labor Department added that the four-week moving average fell 7,000 to 359,000 from the previous week's revised average of 366,000.

The report also noted that the number of people continuing to collect jobless benefits fell 52,000 in to 3.39 million in the week ended Feb. 11, from 3.44 million the preceding week.