Stock Indexes Close Ahead - NYTimes.com Wall Street stocks closed higher Thursday after reports on a drop in unemployment claims and a smaller-than-expected rise in wholesale prices. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was up 0.6 percent, closing above 1,400 for the first time since 2008. The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.4 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 0.5 percent. In the latest sign that the job market was gaining steam, the Labor Department said the number of applications for unemployment benefits dropped by 14,000 last week, matching a four-year low reached last month. Applications were at a level that indicates hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate. The government also said wholesale prices rose 0.4 percent in February, a shade less than the 0.5 percent economists expected. The core index, which excludes food and gas prices, increased 0.2 percent, the smallest gain in three months. In Europe, markets were mixed. The FTSE 100 index of British shares closed off 0.1 percent, the CAC 40 in France gained 0.4 percent and the DAX in Germany rose 0.9 percent. Oil prices fell as much as $3 to $103 a barrel after Reuters quoted two British sources as saying Britain had agreed to cooperate with the United States in releasing strategic oil reserves later this year. The White House later denied the report, and oil recovered most of its losses. Earlier, mainland Chinese shares fell. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.7 percent. But Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 0.2 percent higher and Japan's Nikkei index rose 0.7 percent as the yen continued to decline from record highs against the United States dollar. Cisco Systems slipped 1 percent after announcing a $5 billion deal to buy NDS Group from News Corp., whose shares edged higher. Sears Holdings shares rose 6 percent after the troubled department store chain said its top investor tried to ease vendors" concerns early this year by taking on some of the risk that they would face if Sears filed for bankruptcy.