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August 29, 2013: U.S. markets opened lower Thursday morning on a better than expected report on new jobless benefits claims and a higher-than-expected second reading on second quarter GDP growth. Traders must be getting a jump on the long weekend because trading volume has been very light today. Today’s report on natural gas inventories pushed prices up about 0.7% by the end of the day.

European, Asian, and Latin American markets all closed mostly higher today.

Friday’s calendar includes a speech by St. Louis Fed President James Bullard plus the following data releases and events:

• 8:30 a.m. – Personal income and outlays
• 9:00 a.m. – Chicago PMI
• 9:55 a.m. – Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment
• 3:00 p.m. – Farm prices

We also posted a story on our market winners for the long Labor Day weekend.

Here are the closing bell levels for Thursday:

• S&P500 1,638.16 (+3.20; +0.20%)
• DJIA 14,840.87 (+16.36; +0.11%)
• NASDAQ 3,620.30 (+26.95; +75%)
• 10YR TNOTE 2.762% (+0.0625%)
• Gold $1,412.90 (-5.90; -0.4%)
• Euro/Dollar: 1.3243 (-0.0096; -0.72%)

Big earnings movers: Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) is down 3.2% at $43.30. Corinthian Colleges Inc. (NASDAQ: COCO) is down 10.3% at $2.34. JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) is down 6.9% at $7.40.

Stocks on the move: Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) is up 8.1% at $31.80 on reports of discussions with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) that would result in the sale of Vodafone’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to the controlling shareholder. Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: DDE) is up 10.8% at $1.54 after Wednesday’s launch of its online casino games that will soon be available to state residents to play for real money.

In all, 26 stocks put up new 52-week highs today, while 30 stocks posted new lows.