+ 7 ES Points

A small drop in unemployment claims and a higher profit forecast by FedEx Corp. helped push stocks to two-year highs Thursday. The Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to 420,000, the third drop in four weeks. The four-week average of claims also slid for the sixth straight week, reaching the lowest level since July 2008. That was before Lehman Brothers collapsed and markets seized up at the height of the financial crisis. Separately, the Commerce Department said housing starts rose slightly last month, reversing a two-month decline. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 41 to 11,499. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 7 to 1,242. The Nasdaq composite rose 20 to 2,637. Gains came across the market. All 10 company groups in the Standard and Poor's 500 index rose. Stocks have had a strong December. The Dow index has gained 4.5 over the last month. The S&P 500 has risen 5.3 percent. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.42 percent from 3.53 percent the day before. Investors have been selling Treasurys as their outlook on the economy improves, sending yields on the bonds higher. The 10-year yield traded as low as 2.49 percent as recently as Nov. 4. The dollar fell 0.2 percent against an index of six heavily traded currencies. Gold fell 1.1 percent.