Stocks Rise as European Central Bank Move

U.S. stocks opened strongly higher on Thursday after the European Central Bank said it was coordinating with the Federal Reserve and other central banks. The ECB news helped offset disappointing U.S. economic data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately added 111.11 points to 11,357.84. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 10.63 points to 1,199.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 18.68 points to 2,591.23.

The European Central Bank has announced plans to provide banks with dollars in three medium-term loan operations through the end of this year. The ECB said Thursday that it had decided to launch the three-month loans in coordination with the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank.

Consumers paid more for a range of goods and services last month, pushing up inflation and squeezing Americans’ purchasing power. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent in August after jumping 0.5 percent in July. The core index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent.

The number of applications for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level in nearly two months. New requests for compensation climbed 11,000 to 428,000 in the week ended Sept. 10, the Labor Department said. Initial claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 417,000 from an original reading of 414,000.

Manufacturing activity in the New York region weakened again in September. The Empire State index decreased slightly to negative 8.8 in September from negative 7.7 in August, according to the manufacturing survey released by the New York Federal Reserve. This is the fourth month in negative territory.

Swiss bank UBS AG said Thursday that a rogue trader in its investment-banking division ran up $2 billion of losses, which could push the firm’s third- quarter results into the red.

Netflix is lowering its U.S. subscriber expectations for the third quarter because of customer losses relating to a split of its DVD and streaming options. The company said Thursday it now expects 21.8 million subscribers for its streaming-only service and 14.2 million subscribers to get DVD plans. That’s down from a late July estimate of 22 million streaming customers and 15 million DVD subscribers.