Stocks trade flat late this afternoon

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks were trading mixed this afternoon after enthusiasm over better news on the labor market faded.

Stocks had edged higher in the morning after a report from the Labor Department showed that first time claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the second-lowest level this year. Claims fell to 421,000, below the 428,000 figure that Wall Street expected.

The four-week average of claims also slid for the fifth straight week, reaching the lowest level since August 2008, before the darkest days of the financial crisis.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index is inching up, a day after setting a closing high for 2010. The index rose 1.02, or 0.08 percent, to 1,229.29. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 34.70, or 0.3 percent, to 11,338.5. The Nasdaq composite index rose 3.2, or 0.1 percent, to 2,612.25.