U.S. stocks were slightly higher in early trading Thursday following a report that initial jobless claims fell 52,000 to 565,000 in the week ended July 4, though continuing claims rose 159,000 to 6,883,000. U.S. wholesale sales were up by a larger than expected 0.2% in May.

A lower than expected loss from Alcoa (AA) posted after the close Wednesday also lifted sentiment on Wall Street.

Traders were awaiting a report on May wholesale inventories, which were expected to fall 1.2%. Some market players were encouraged by a report that China’s car sales jumped 48% in June.

At around 10:06 a.m. ET Thursday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average was higher by 16.85 points, or 0.21%, at 8,195.26. The broad Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 4.27 points, or 0.49%, at 883.83. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index added 8.89 points, or 0.51%, to 1,756.06.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 18 stocks were higher in price for every six that declined, while Nasdaq breadth was 14-5 positive. Trading was active.

The dollar index was lower; the pound was up as the Bank of England left interest rates alone. Treasuries were off. Gold futures were up. Crude oil rebounded above $61 per barrel, supporting energy companies ahead of Chevron’s () earnings due after the close.

Despite Wednesday’s better mood on Wall Street, caveats abound, according to Action Economics, since the Alcoa decline was its third consecutive quarterly loss, and the jobless drop was a distortion relating to seasonals and auto retooling shutdowns being pulled forward by auto bankruptcies.

The U.S. plan to help buy as much as $40 billion in assets from banks got started almost four months after it was proposed and without Pacific Investment Management, the world’s biggest bond manager and an early supporter. The Treasury Department picked nine money managers yesterday for the Public-Private Investment Program, or PPIP, including BlackRock and Invesco. Pimco, which in March announced plans to apply, said it withdrew its application in June because of “uncertainties” about the plan’s design. The government’s plan is a scaled-down version of a program that was once envisioned to buy as much as $1 trillion in devalued real-estate loans and mortgage-backed assets.

In economic news Thursday, U.S. wholesale sales were up 0.2% in May, while inventories were down 0.8%. April’s 0.4% dip in sales was revised up to unchanged, the 1.4% drop in inventories was also revised up slightly to -1.3%. Petroleum sales were up 4.6%, while sales excluding petroleum were down 0.3%. The inventory-sales ratio declined to 1.29 from 1.31.

“The data are a little better than expected, but there shouldn’t be much reaction in the markets,” says Action Economics.

U.S. jobless claims plunged 52,000 to 565,000 in the week ended July 4, from a revised 617,000 the week before (from 614,000). It’s the first time the weekly figure was below 600,000 since Jan. 24. Continuing claims rose 159,000 to a fresh record high of 6,883,000 from a revised 6,724,000 (from 6,702,000).

S&P chief economist David Wyss believes the report “is distorted by the holiday weekend, and probably reflects seasonal adjustment anomalies rather than any sudden improvement in the labor market.”