U.S. stocks ended mixed Thursday, as jobless claims rose ahead of the December jobs report due Friday. In international economic news, Chinese vice premier Li Keqiang said late Wednesday that China will buy about $7.9 billion of Spanish government debt, according to news reports citing Spanish newspaper El Pais. In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose by 18,000 to 409,000 in the latest week. Economists were expecting claims to increase to 405,000. On Friday, the U.S government's monthly jobs report is expected to show employers increased payrolls by 150,000 last month, following a 39,000 increase in November, according to economists. The report comes after payroll processor ADP issued its figures on Wednesday showing that private-sector employers added 297,000 jobs in December. In company news, shares of BP (British Petroleum) fell after the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and offshore drilling released a report spreading the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The commission said the problems with deepwater drilling are "systemic" and that only "significant reform" will prevent another disaster. The U.S. dollar gained against the euro and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for February delivery fell $1.92 to $88.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures fell $2.00 to $1,371.70 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 25.58, or 0.2 percent, to 11,697.31. Shares of Verizon, Travelers Companies, and AT&T lead the declines while Microsoft, Boeing, and Hewlett Packard posted the biggest gains. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.71, or 0.2 percent, to 1,273.85. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 7.69, or 0.3 percent, to 2,709.89.
