Stocks advance as investors sift through data

Bond prices rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.84 percent from 3.92 percent late Wednesday.

The dollar was lower against most other major currencies, and gold prices climbed.

In deal-making news, CBS agreed to buy online technology news and entertainment company CNet Networks Inc. for about $1.75 billion. The owner of the CBS television network and TV stations said the deal will boost its online presence and allow it to tap the growing market for online advertising.

CBS fell 75 cents, or 3 percent, to $24.07, while CNet rose $3.45, or 43 percent, to $11.40.

General Electric plans to auction off its Louisville, Ky.-based appliances business, according to The Wall Street Journal. GE has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to run an auction for the appliance division, according to the newspaper, which quoted unidentified sources. The sale is seen yielding between $5 billion and $8 billion. GE slid 12 cents to $32.39.

Meanwhile, IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask.com has bought a stable of Internet reference sites that includes Dictionary.com in its latest effort to distinguish itself from online search leader Google Inc. and other much larger rivals. IAC/InterActiveCorp fell 2 cents to $23.71.

But as companies find the corporate climate more operation, another concern remains: whether higher food and energy costs are hampering Americans' ability to spend.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude prices briefly surpassed $125 a barrel, nearing record levels, but then retreated as options -which let investors bet on whether oil will fall or rise -expired, and as natural gas prices dropped. Crude for June delivery fell 10 cents in volatile trading to $124.12 a barrel.

J.C. Penney's quarterly profit came in a bit better than expected, helping its shares rise $1.40, or 3 percent, to $45.65, but it said a pullback in consumer spending cut its first-quarter profit in half, and predicted "difficult" conditions for the entire year.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 4.64, or 0.63 percent, to 740.71.