Led by the retailers and financials, US stocks posted decent gains initially on Thursday, 04 March, 2010. But a stronger dollar has hampered the broader equity market during mid day session. Nevertheless, stocks managed to end with modest gains.

At the end of the day on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher by 47.38 points at 10444.14. Nasdaq ended higher by 11.63 points at 2292.31. S&P 500 ended higher by 4.2 points at 1122.97. Dow opened 40 points higher earlier during the day.

Eight of ten economic sectors ended higher led by the consumer discretionary and financial sectors. Energy and healthcare sectors featured among laggards.

Walt Disney, Coco Cola and Boeing were main Dow winners. Walt Disney and Coco Cola shares rose today after respective investment firms upgraded both.

Shares of retailers were up after a raft of upbeat same-store sales results for February hit news wires. Majority reported better-than-expected results.

The financial sector led the way on reports that Goldman Sachs has drawn attention for debt swaps that enabled the Greek government to use favorable exchange rates to record some of its debt, which was offered as part of Greece's efforts to strengthen its fiscal condition.

Economic data did little to influence market momentum but that was largely because of the impending nonfarm payrolls number, which is due tomorrow morning.

Initial claims for the week ended 27 February 2010 totaled 469,000, which was in-line with expectations. Continuing claims made a surprise drop to 4.50 million.

Pending home sales for January dropped 7.6% month-over-month in a surprise decline. Meanwhile, factory orders for January increased 1.7%, which was on par with what had been expected.

Separately, the final fourth quarter nonfarm productivity reading showed an increase of 6.9%, which was sharper than expected, while a 5.9% plunge in unit labor costs was steeper than expected.

Meanwhile, both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England left their benchmark interest rates unchanged, as expected. Bank of England also kept its quantitative easing measures unchanged. Europe's chief currency, the euro, has lost ground in the wake of the announcements and helped the dollar advance 0.7% against a basket of competing currencies.

Crude prices ended lower on Thursday, 04 March, 2010. But prices managed to stay above the $80 mark. Prices fell as the dollar rose against the euro decreasing crude's appeal against an alternate investment. The dollar rose riding on the back of strong economic data and Europe's approval of Greece's plan to reduce its deficit.

On Thursday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for April delivery closed at $80.21/barrel (lower by $0.66 or 0.8%).

Natural-gas futures contract for April delivery fell 18 cents, or 3.8%, to end at $4.58 per million British thermal units. The EIA reported today that natural gas in storage declined 116 billion cubic feet in the past week, less than the withdrawal of 128 to 132 billion cubic feet expected by market.

Indian ADRs ended mixed on Thursday. ICICI Bank was the main loser shedding 1.4%. Rediff.com gained 3%.

Couple of important economic data are expected tomorrow. The non-farm payroll and unemployment reports are the major ones. Earning reports will continue to pour in tomorrow.