Wall Street edges higher, Dow and S&P records a hurdle

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose modestly on low volume on Thursday after strong economic data, but the proximity of record highs for the Dow and the S&P 500 gave investors a reason to keep gains in check.

The U.S. economy grew slightly in the fourth quarter, reversing an earlier estimate showing contraction, and a drop in new claims for unemployment benefits last week added to a string of data that suggests the economy improved early this year.

Still, an even higher revision to GDP data was expected, and the jobless claims extended a trend baked into stock prices.

The low volume shows a lack of conviction from new buyers, according to Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.

Polcari the recent gains are the reaction to Monday's selloff, but there are not enough catalysts to take indexes much higher.

"Don't expect the market to hit new highs today," he said.

In afternoon trading, just over 3 billion shares had changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT.

The Dow was within striking distance of its record high after a year-to-date advance of almost 8 percent. The Dow Jones Transportation Average <.djt>, seen as a bet on future growth, is up 13 percent this year, and the 20-stock index hit a record intraday high earlier on Thursday.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 61.32 points or 0.44 percent to 14,136.69. The S&P 500 <.spx> gained 8.03 points or 0.53 percent to 1,524.02. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 17.14 points or 0.55 percent, to 3,179.67.

The Dow's record closing high, set on October 9, 2007, stands at 14,164.53, while the Dow's intraday record high, set on October 11, 2007, stands at 14,198.10.

The S&P 500 has gained more than 2 percent this week and is on track to post its fourth straight month of gains.

Equity markets suffered steep losses earlier in the week on concerns about the impact of an Italian election on the European economy, but stocks bounced back on strong data and recent comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that showed continued support for the Fed's economic stimulus policy.

Gains in Limited Brands and Netflix , both up nearly 4 percent, led the way among consumer stocks. Shares of Limited Brands, the parent of retailers Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, shot up 3.8 percent to $46.21. The stock of video streaming service Netflix jumped 3.8 percent to $191.24.

In contrast, shares of J.C. Penney , however, slid 14.9 percent to $18.01 after the department store operator reported a steep drop in sales on Wednesday. Groupon Inc also fell on weak revenue, with the daily deals company's stock off 19.2 percent at $4.83.

Cablevision shares tumbled 8.8 percent to $14.11 after the cable provider took a $100 million hit on costs related to Superstorm Sandy and posted deeper video customer losses than expected.

On a positive note, Mylan Inc shares were on track to close at their highest ever after the generic drugmaker posted a 25 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit and said it will buy a unit of India's Strides Arcolab Ltd. Mylan's stock gained 4.2 percent to $29.78.

Investors were keeping an eye on the debate in Washington over U.S. government budget cuts that will take effect starting Friday if lawmakers fail to reach agreement on spending and taxes. President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders arranged last-ditch talks to prevent the cuts, but expectations were low that any deal would emerge.

With 93 percent of the S&P 500 companies having reported results so far, 69.5 percent have beaten profit expectations, compared with a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 6.2 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Jan Paschal)

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Bobby Brown Sentenced to Jail for DUI

Bobby Brown has been sentenced to 55 days in jail for his second DUI conviction in a year.

The 44-year-old singer received the sentence Tuesday after his lawyer entered a plea of no contest on his behalf to charges that Brown was under the influence and driving on a suspended license when he was arrested in October 2012.

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He was ordered to report to jail beginning March 20 and was also placed on four years of informal probation and will be required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous sessions each week.

Brown also pleaded no contest last year to another charge of driving under the influence in connection with an arrest last April.

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Vt. lye victim gets new face at Boston hospital

BOSTON (AP) — The 2007 chemical attack left the Vermont nurse unrecognizable to anyone who knew her.

But now Carmen Blandin Tarleton's face has changed again following a facial transplant this month.

Doctors at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston said Wednesday that the 44-year-old's surgery included transplanting a female donor's facial skin to Tarleton's neck, nose and lips, along with facial muscles, arteries and nerves.

"I know how truly blessed I am, and will have such a nice reflection in the mirror to remind myself what selfless really is," Tarleton wrote on her blog Wednesday.

The Thetford, Vt., woman suffered burns on more than 80 percent of her body and was blinded after her estranged husband attacked her with a baseball bat and doused her with lye in 2007.

Tarleton, who once worked as a transplant nurse, has undergone more than 50 surgeries since the attack, including work to restore some of her vision.

The latest surgery took 15 hours and included a team of more than 30 medical professionals. The lead surgeon, Bohdan Pomahac, called her injuries among the worst he's seen in his career.

"Carmen is a fighter," the doctor said Wednesday. "And fight she did."

Pomahac's team has performed five facial transplants at the hospital. He said the patient is recovering very well and is in great spirits as she works to get stronger.

He said she was very pleased when she saw her face for the first time, and that her appearance will not match that of the late donor's face.

"I think she looks amazing, but I'm biased," he said with a smile.

The donor's family wants to remain anonymous, but released a statement through a regional donor bank saying that her spirit would live on through Tarleton and three other organ recipients.

The estranged husband, Herbert Rodgers, pleaded guilty in 2009 in exchange for a prison sentence of at least 30 years.

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Derek Hough Talks Maksim Chmerkovskiy Dancing with the Stars Exit

ET caught up with the brand-new cast of Dancing with the Stars season 16 after their big Good Morning America announcement Tuesday morning, where one looming question couldn't be ignored -- can the show survive without popular pro dancer Maksim Chrmerkovskiy?

"It's the nature of the show, you know. People aren't asked back certain seasons and come back later," pro dancer Derek Hough says. "It'll be a different dynamic but that's what it's about I suppose. I'm excited for the new pros."

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However, he did share that the producers of the ABC hit are trying to bring back a more "positive" vibe to the show -- and it's no secret that Maksim was a controversial figure in seasons past.

"We had a meeting with the producers, and like, we really want to bring the innocence back to the show and the positivity and the fun and not -- [yes] be competitive -- but we don't want to make it a negative competitiveness," Derek shares.

Derek, already a three-time winner of the coveted mirror ball trophy, is paired up with country star Kellie Pickler this season, who just happens to be the first crossover contestant from American Idol!

"It's exciting to kind of get the whole 'pick Pickler' thing going again and I don't know, it's great to step outside your comfort zone and try something new and I think it's when you do things like that you grow," an excited Kellie tells ET.

Related: 'DWTS' Season 16 Cast Revealed!

Check out the video to hear thoughts from brand-new DWTS contestants like Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, D.L. Hughley, Andy Dick, NFL wide receiver Jacoby Jones, Wynonna Judd and Real Housewives' Lisa Vanderpump.

Dancing with the Stars premieres March 26 on ABC.

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FDA halts Amgen study after teen patient death

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health regulators say they have halted Amgen's studies of its thyroid drug Sensipar after the death of a 14-year-old patient in a company trial.

The Food and Drug Administration says it is gathering information about the death, but has shut down all studies of the drug in children.

Sensipar is approved for adults to treat over-activity of the parathyroid gland. Amgen Inc. had been studying the drug to see whether it works in children.

The FDA says in a statement it is unclear whether Amgen's drug had a role in the patient's death, but it is reminding doctors to prescribe it carefully.

The agency says doctors should monitor patients' calcium levels to make sure they don't fall to dangerous levels.

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Italy election forecasts point to political gridlock

ROME (Reuters) - Conflicting early forecasts of the result of Italy's election on Monday raised the specter of deadlock in parliament that could paralyze a new government and re-ignite the euro zone crisis.

Officials from both center and left warned that such gridlock could make Italy ungovernable and force new elections.

Opinion polls have long pointed to the center-left of Pier Luigi Bersani winning the lower house, but projections from RAI state television showed Silvio Berlusconi's center right in front in the Senate - which has equal lawmaking power - but unable to form a majority.

RAI showed the center-left well short of a majority in the Senate even in coalition with Monti, who was seen slumping to only 19 out of 315 elected Senators against a massive 65 for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo.

Senate votes are counted before the lower house.

The latest projections ran counter to earlier telephone polls that showed the center left taking a strong lead in the Senate as well as the lower house.

Italian financial markets took fright after rising earlier on hopes for a stable and strong center-left led government, probably backed by outgoing technocrat premier Mario Monti.

Such government is seen by investors as the best guarantee of measures to combat a deep recession and stagnant growth in the euro zone's third largest economy, which is pivotal to stability in the currency union.

Berlusconi's declared aim is to win enough power in the Senate to paralyze a center-left administration.

The benchmark spread between Italian 10-year bonds and their German equivalent widened from below 260 basis points to above 280 and the Italian share index lost all its previous gains.

"These projections suggest that we are heading for an ungovernable situation", said Mario Secchi, a candidate for Monti's centrist movement.

Stefano Fassina, chief economic official for Bersani's center-left, said: "The scenario from the projections we have seen so far suggest there will be no stable government and we would need to return to the polls."

The earlier telephone polls on Sky and Rai television after voting ended at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT/9 a.m. ET) had shown the center left 5-6 points ahead of the center right in both Senate and lower house, with Grillo taking third place.

Adding to the confusion, official results from more than 50 percent of polling stations showed the center-left ahead with 32.7 percent against 29.5 for the center-right in the Senate race. The partial official count is often not representative because of the order in which votes are counted regionally.

Italy's electoral laws guarantee a strong majority in the lower house to the party or coalition that wins the biggest share of the national vote.

However the Senate, elected on a region-by-region basis, is more complicated and the result will turn on four key battleground regions. Projections from LA 7 showed Berlusconi winning in three of them: Lombardy, Sicily and Campania.

A Sky television projection showed him strongly ahead in the rich northern region Lombardy, which returns the largest number of Senators, with 38.8 percent against 27.6 for the center left.

BITTER CAMPAIGN

A bitter campaign, fought largely over economic issues, has made some investors fear a return of the kind of debt crisis that took the euro zone close to disaster and brought the technocrat Monti to office, replacing the scandal-plagued Berlusconi, in 2011.

Monti helped save Italy from a debt crisis when Rome's borrowing costs were spiraling out of control, but the polls and projections suggested few Italians now see him as the savior of the country, in its longest recession for 20 years.

A surge in protest votes for Grillo's 5-Star Movement had raised uncertainty about the chances of a stable government that could fend off the danger of a renewed euro zone crisis.

Grillo's movement rode a huge wave of voter anger about both the pain of Monti's austerity program and a string of political and corporate scandals. It had particular appeal for a frustrated younger generation shut out of full-time jobs.

"I'm sick of the scandals and the stealing," said Paolo Gentile, a 49-year-old Rome lawyer who voted for 5-Star.

"We need some young, new people in parliament, not the old parties that are totally discredited."

Bad weather, including heavy snow in some areas, was thought to have hampered the turnout in Italy's first post-war election to be held in winter. This could have favored the center left, whose voters tend to be more committed than those on the right, which has strong support among older people.

Berlusconi, a 76-year-old media tycoon, pledged sweeping tax cuts and accused Monti of being a puppet of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a media blitz that halved the lead of the center left in opinion polls since the start of the year.

Whatever government emerges will inherit an economy that has been stagnant for much of the past two decades and problems ranging from record youth unemployment to a dysfunctional justice system and a bloated public sector.

(Additional reporting by Stefano Bernabei, Steve Scherer, Gavin Jones and Giuseppe Fonte in Rome and Lisa Jucca in Milan; Writing by Barry Moody; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Philippa Fletcher)

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Janet Jackson Married Wissam Al Mana

Rumors that Janet Jackson is planning her wedding to Wissam Al Mana have been flying fast and furious for weeks now. There's only one problem: they're already married!

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In their first joint statement as a couple, Janet Jackson and Wissam Al Mana confirm the news exclusively to ET, saying, "The rumours regarding an extravagant wedding are simply not true. Last year we were married in a quiet, private, and beautiful ceremony."

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"Our wedding gifts to one another were contributions to our respective favourite children’s charities. We would appreciate that our privacy is respected and that we are allowed this time for celebration and joy. With love, Wissam and Janet"

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Photo by world-renowned photographer, Marco Glaviano.

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Wall Street drops on Italian election uncertainty

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Monday, reversing course from earlier gains as elections in Italy stoked concerns a divided parliament could disrupt the country's fiscal reforms and the euro zone's stability.

Early forecasts of the results were conflicting, as opinion polls indicated the center-left of Pier Luigi Bersani winning the lower house, but projections from RAI state television showed Silvio Berlusconi's center right in front in the Senate - which has equal lawmaking power - but unable to form a majority.

The resulting gridlock in parliament could force new elections and sent the euro currency lower against both the dollar and yen.

"Most likely we are looking at a second election, so it's delayed, but at the margin it is a negative," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York.

"The question is, what happens with Italy and that uncertainty is out there, that is really what you've seen in the sell-off here."

Earlier polls pointing to a center-left victory boosted stocks in Milan and other European markets, as well as helping to lift the S&P 500 to a session high of 1,525.84 on optimism Italy would continue to pay down its debt.

However, the benchmark S&P index remained near highs not seen in five years, as bets on a stronger U.S. economy have given equities support. The S&P 500's slight fall last week was the first weekly drop after a seven-week string of gains to start the year.

Banks and other financial stocks were among the worst performers on worries about the sector's exposure to Italy's massive debt. The KBW Bank Index <.bkx> fell 1.1 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 92.14 points, or 0.66 percent, to 13,908.43. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> dropped 11.65 points, or 0.77 percent, to 1,503.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> dropped 12.65 points, or 0.40 percent, to 3,149.17.

Barnes & Noble Inc shares jumped 10.6 percent to $14.94 after the bookseller's chairman offered to buy its declining retail business.

The Nasdaq received support from Amgen Inc , up 4.9 percent at $91.03, after rival Affymax issued a voluntary recall of its only drug, an anemia treatment that competes with Amgen's top-selling red blood cell booster, Epogen. Affymax shares slumped 84.6 percent to $2.55.

The FTSEurofirst-300 index of top European shares <.fteu3> unofficially closed up 0.04 percent and Italy's main FTSE MIB <.ftmib> ended up 0.7 percent after earlier gaining near 4 percent.

U.S. equities will face a test with the looming debate over so-called sequestration, U.S. government budget cuts that will take effect starting on Friday if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement over spending and taxes. The White House issued warnings about the harm the cuts are likely to inflict on the economy if enacted.

"Sitting out there is the one thousand pound gorilla - the sequester issue - and certainly nothing is happening there," Ghriskey said.

Lowe's Companies Inc lost 1.6 percent to $37.08 after the home improvement retailer posted fourth-quarter earnings.

With 83 percent of the S&P 500 companies having reported results so far, 69 percent beat profit expectations, compared with a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 6 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry, Jan Paschal and Nick Zieminski)

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Independent Spirit Award Winners 2013

The 2013 Film Independent Spirits Awards were handed out in Santa Monica, CA today and lots of Oscar frontrunners cemented their status by dominating in their categories once more.

Check out all the winners below:

Best Feature

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Bernie

Keep the Lights On

Moonrise Kingdom

Silver Linings Playbook

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Linda Cardellini, Return

Emayatzy Corinealdi, Middle of Nowhere

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Smashed

BEST MALE LEAD

Jack Black, Bernie

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

John Hawkes, The Sessions

Thure Lindhardt, Keep the Lights On

Matthew McConaughey, Killer Joe

Wendell Pierce, Four

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Rosemarie DeWitt, Your Sister's Sister

Ann Dowd, Compliance

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Brit Marling, Sound of My Voice

Lorraine Toussaint, Middle of Nowhere

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike

David Oyelowo, Middle of Nowhere

Michael Pena, End of Watch

Sam Rockwell, Seven Psychopaths

Bruce Willis, Moonrise Kingdom

BEST DIRECTOR

Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom

Julia Loktev, The Loneliest Planet

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

BEST SCREENPLAY

Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom

Zoe Kazan, Ruby Sparks

Martin McDonagh, Seven Psychopaths

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On

For the full list of winners, click here.

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Investors face another Washington deadline

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors face another Washington-imposed deadline on government spending cuts next week, but it's not generating the same level of fear as two months ago when the "fiscal cliff" loomed large.

Investors in sectors most likely to be affected by the cuts, like defense, seem untroubled that the budget talks could send stocks tumbling.

Talks on the U.S. budget crisis began again this week leading up to the March 1 deadline for the so-called sequestration when $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts are scheduled to take effect.

"It's at this point a political hot button in Washington but a very low level investor concern," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The fight pits President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats against congressional Republicans.

Stocks rallied in early January after a compromise temporarily avoided the fiscal cliff, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index <.spx> has risen 6.3 percent since the start of the year.

But the benchmark index lost steam this week, posting its first week of losses since the start of the year. Minutes on Wednesday from the last Federal Reserve meeting, which suggested the central bank may slow or stop its stimulus policy sooner than expected, provided the catalyst.

National elections in Italy on Sunday and Monday could also add to investor concern. Most investors expect a government headed by Pier Luigi Bersani to win and continue with reforms to tackle Italy's debt problems. However, a resurgence by former leader Silvio Berlusconi has raised doubts.

"Europe has been in the last six months less of a topic for the stock market, but the problems haven't gone away. This may bring back investor attention to that," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

OPTIONS BULLS TARGET GAINS

The spending cuts, if they go ahead, could hit the defense industry particularly hard.

Yet in the options market, bulls were targeting gains in Lockheed Martin Corp , the Pentagon's biggest supplier.

Calls on the stock far outpaced puts, suggesting that many investors anticipate the stock to move higher. Overall options volume on the stock was 2.8 times the daily average with 17,000 calls and 3,360 puts traded, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert.

"The upside call buying in Lockheed solidifies the idea that option investors are not pricing in a lot of downside risk in most defense stocks from the likely impact of sequestration," said Jared Woodard, a founder of research and advisory firm condoroptions.com in Forest, Virginia.

The stock ended up 0.6 percent at $88.12 on Friday.

If lawmakers fail to reach an agreement on reducing the U.S. budget deficit in the next few days, a sequester would include significant cuts in defense spending. Companies such as General Dynamics Corp and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp could be affected.

General Dynamics Corp shares rose 1.2 percent to $67.32 and Smith & Wesson added 4.6 percent to $9.18 on Friday.

EYES ON GDP DATA, APPLE

The latest data on fourth-quarter U.S. gross domestic product is expected on Thursday, and some analysts predict an upward revision following trade data that showed America's deficit shrank in December to its narrowest in nearly three years.

U.S. GDP unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter, according to an earlier government estimate, but analysts said there was no reason for panic, given that consumer spending and business investment picked up.

Investors will be looking for any hints of changes in the Fed's policy of monetary easing when Fed Chairman Ben Bernake speaks before congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Shares of Apple will be watched closely next week when the company's annual stockholders' meeting is held.

On Friday, a U.S. judge handed outspoken hedge fund manager David Einhorn a victory in his battle with the iPhone maker, blocking the company from moving forward with a shareholder vote on a controversial proposal to limit the company's ability to issue preferred stock.

(Additional reporting by Doris Frankel; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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