Stocks End Higher but Trim Gains

Stocks closed higher but were off their highs on Thursday in the wake of a report showing strong retail sales in November and as oil continued its sharp decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose as much as 216 points by mid-afternoon, but ended the day with a gain of 63.19 points, or 0.36%, at 17,596.34. The S&P 500 gained 9.19 points, or 0.45%, to 2,035.33. The Nasdaq Composite finished the day up 24.14 points, or 0.52%, at 4,708.16.

U.S. crude futures fell below $60 a barrel on Thursday. New York Mercantile Exchange’s front-month West Texas Intermediate contract for U.S. crude was down 96 cents at $59.98 a barrel by 2:18 p.m. EST after touching a session low at $59.85.

Photoshop maker Adobe Systems Inc said it would buy stock photography company Fotolia for $800 million and reported a 3 percent rise in quarterly revenue, helped by higher subscription sales of its Creative Cloud suite. Adobe’s net income rose to $73.3 million, or 14 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Nov. 28, from $65.3 million, or 13 cents per share, a year earlier.