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November 21, 2012

Stocks slightly higher at the open on Wall Street

From The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Stocks opened slightly higher Wednesday on Wall Street ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

In the opening minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up seven points at 12,795. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up a point at 1,389. And the Nasdaq composite index was up five at 2,922.

Deere, the maker of tractors and other farm and construction equipment, opened down 3 percent. It reported a quarterly profit of $1.75 per share, missing Wall Street expectations of $1.88.

Chipotle Mexican Group, the restaurant chain, climbed 2.4 percent. It announced late Tuesday that it would buy back an additional $100 million of its own stock. It had announced a $100 million buyback plan Oct. 18.

The quiet open Wednesday followed an uneventful finish Tuesday. The Dow dropped as much as 94 points after a warning from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about federal budget talks, then recovered to close down seven points.

The stock market will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving and will close early Friday.

The price of oil climbed 95 cents to $87.70 per barrel. It fell $2.53 on Tuesday because of signs that Israel and Hamas were close to a cease-fire to end Israel’s weeklong assault on the Gaza Strip, but a cease-fire remained elusive Wednesday.

In the bond market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 0.01 percentage point to 1.68 percent.

European markets were modestly higher. Stocks climbed 0.3 percent in France and 0.1 percent in Germany. Asian markets fared better. The Nikkei index in Japan climbed 0.9 percent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong 1.4 percent.

 

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