Stocks edge higher after trade deficit report

Stocks are edging higher in early trading on Wall Street after a report showed that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in December.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 120 points to 13,965 shortly after the opening bell Thursday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up three points at 1,512 and the Nasdaq composite is up 12 points at 3,178.

Stocks are slightly lower for the week, with Dow down 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 also 0.3 percent lower.

The trade deficit fell nearly 21 percent in December from November to $38.6 billion, the Commerce Department said Friday. That's the smallest in nearly three years. The smaller trade gap means the economy likely performed better in the final three months of last year than first estimated last week.

Shares of LinkedIn, the online professional-networking service, jumped $21.32, or 18 percent, to $145.70 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results late Thursday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-08-US-Wall-Street-Open/id-9c4e75e91d9c4941a7366ce98034b464

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