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Asian markets ended mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng +0.5%, China's Shanghai Composite +0.8%, and Japan's Nikkei -0.4%. Bank of Japan board member Sayuri Shirai, who was a dissenter at the last meeting, said she has doubts whether inflation will be able to reach the 2.0% target in the next two years. Ms. Shirai also said failure to reach this target would warrant additional easing. Major European indices hold modest gains while peripheral markets outperform. Great Britain's FTSE +0.1%, France's CAC +0.2%, and Germany's DAX +0.3%. Elsewhere, Italy's MIB +1.0% and Spain's IBEX +0.6%. Great Britain's GDP rose 0.8% quarter-over-quarter while the year-over-year reading increased 1.5%, as expected.

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Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 26.61, +1.52): +6.1% after beating earnings estimates by one cent on aboveconsensus revenue. Intel (INTC 23.52, -0.13): -0.6% after RBC Capital Markets downgraded the stock to Sector Perform' from Outperform.' Weekly initial claims and October durable goods will be released at 8:30 ET while the Chicago PMI for November will cross the wires at 9:45 ET. The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 316,000, which was lower than the 330,000 that had been expected by the Briefing.com consensus. Today's tally was below the revised prior week count of 326,000. Seasonal adjustment problems were cited as a factor for the low level of initial claims, so once again we'll have to put an asterisk next to a number that looks encouraging at first blush. In all likelihood, the initial claims level will move higher as the seasonal adjustment problem gets corrected. October durable goods orders fell 2.0%, which was better than the 2.2% decrease that had been expected among economists polled by Briefing.com. This comes after the prior month's revised reading reflected an increase of 4.1% (from 3.7%). Excluding transportation, durable orders ticked down 0.1% (consensus +0.2%) to follow the prior month's revised uptick of 0.2% (from -0.1%). The upward revisions to September's data cushioned some of the blow of the downturn in October. The report though was still disappointing in terms of what it said about business investment, which is that it is weak.

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10. Nondefense capital goods orders, excluding aircraft, declined by 1.2% after a 1.4% decline in September. Shipments of those goods, which factor into the GDP computation, declined by 0.2% for the second straight month. 11. It is the day before Thanksgiving, so one can be forgiven if the stock market isn't exactly the first thing on their mind. For most, it is the weather forecast; for many, it is the deals that await on Black ThurFriday (we've combined it like turducken); and for others, it is Hanukkah. The translation is that trading volume today is likely to be on the light side. 12. The big headline was that the Nasdaq closed above 4,000 for the first time since September 2000. 13. That could be enough to spur some speculative buying interest in front of the Thanksgiving holiday, but for now, the opening gains for the major averages are expected to be on the modest side of things. It is not surprising, though, that the early bias is at least positive considering the Wednesday and Friday surrounding Thanksgiving often produce a net gain for the Dow. 14. There wasn't much reaction to the initial claims and durable orders reports, which painted a mixed headline picture. That can be attributed in part to the understanding that people are generally focused more today on the weather forecast, the Black ThurFriday sales, and Hanukkah.

15. Los futuros de acciones apuntaban a una presin por nuevos mximos el mircoles despus de informes mejores a lo esperado en las solicitudes de desempleo semanales y los pedidos de bienes duraderos. 16. Whats worse, so-called core capital goods orders fell 1.2% last month after a 1.4% drop in September. That category excludes aircraft and Pentagon spending and is a good proxy for how much U.S. businesses are investing.

The one big bright spot once again was autos. Orders climbed 1.7% to mark the second strong gain in three months. The sluggish pace of business investment helps explain why the U.S. economy is growing so slowly more than four years after the Great Recession ended. Business investment typically accelerates during a recovery, generating more demand for capital goods and the labor to produce them. 17. Peter Hug, global trading director at Kitco Metals Inc., pointed to a slightly weaker tone to the U.S. dollar as consumer
confidence in Germany came in stronger than expected and created some modest short covering in the metals overnight. Consumer sentiment in Germany has hit the highest level in more than six years, GfK said in its monthly survey of roughly 2,000 German consumers.
The tech-heavy index has received support from its largest component, Apple (AAPL 539.56, +6.16), which trades higher by 1.2%. In turn, the technology sector (+0.6%) trades ahead of the remaining groups at this juncture. The sector has also received a boost from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 27.31, +2.22), which holds an advance of 8.5% after beating bottom-line estimates by one cent on above-consensus revenue.

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U.S. stocks edged up on Wednesday, aiming for fresh records after better-than-expected reports on weekly jobless claims and durable-goods orders. Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities USA, described the claims and durable-goods reports as another mixed bag. He said in emailed comments on Wednesday that they indicate the economy is stuck on the same shallow growth trajectory it has been o n for the past few years.

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Chinese stocksrose on hopes of financial reforms, while Japanese shares pared losses as the yen weakened. European stocks climbed after better-than-expected consumer-confidence data from Germany. The dollarpushed lower against the euro after that German data hit, while gold was up andoil fell.

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A gauge of Chicago-area businesses somewhat pulled back in November, after rising in October to the strongest level since March 2011, but still beat the consensus estimate from analysts, according to data released Wednesday. The Chicago purchasing managers index fell to 63 in November, led by new orders, production and order backlogs. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected a November index reading of 59, compared with 65.9 in October. Results over 50 indicate an expansion from the prior month.

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A gauge of consumer sentiment rose to a final reading of 75.1 in November from 73.2 in October, according to Wednesday reports. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a final November reading of 73, compared with a preliminary monthly reading of 72, which was the lowest since December 2011.

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