Stocks move cautiously higher

Wall Street stocks made tentative gains Thursday after central banks in Europe left their key lending rates intact. The Bank of England kept its lending rate at 0.5 percent. The European Central Bank kept its rate at 0.75 percent. Both decisions were expected, but the ECB's decision came with a more pessimistic forecast for the economy of the eurozone, which the ECB not expects will contract 0.3 percent in 2013. In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average added 10.25 points, or 0.08 percent, to 13,044.74. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index gained 13.94 points, or 0.47 percent, to 2,987.64. The Standard and Poor's 500 added 2.18 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,411.46. The 10-year treasury note rose 7/32 to yield 1.567 percent. The euro fell to $1.2956 from Wednesday's $1.3066. The dollar fell to 82.36 yen from 82.47 yen. Japan's Nikkei 225 index added 0.81 percent, 76.32 points, to 9,545.16. Britain's FTSE 100 index gained 0.16 percent, 9.34 points, to 5,901.42.