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Elsewhere in Asia, Sydney's S&P ASX 200 was down 0.6 percent at 4,884.20. "Generally, the market feels as if it is struggling for direction. Commodities seem to have stabilized since the beginning of the week but we aren't seeing huge amounts of buying. I think a lot of investors are a bit cautious given the recent gains and lacklustre start to the US earnings season," Ben Potter, market strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne, said in a report. On Wall Street, U.S. stocks ended slightly up Wednesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.25 point, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,314.41. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 7.41, or 0.1 percent, to 12,270.99. The Nasdaq composite gained 16.73, or 0.6 percent, to 2,761.52. Stocks gave up earlier losses after the Federal Reserve said economic conditions were improving in all 12 regions it surveyed. Markets were also anticipating Thursday's release in Washington of weekly jobless claims. Financial companies fell nearly 1 percent, the most of any group in the S&P 500 index, after the head of JPMorgan Chase said that nationwide investigations into how banks handled foreclosures likely to result in corporate fines and penalties. Benchmark crude for May delivery was down 4 cents at $107.07 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 86 cents to settle at $107.11 on Wednesday. The dollar fell slightly to 83.32 yen from 83.82 in New York late Wednesday, while the euro was up slightly at $1.4475 from $1.4441.
[Associated
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