(Reuters) - Stocks rose on Thursday after a labor market report indicated the economy was slowly recovering, but the data was not enough to push the S&P convincingly above a 10-month high. Equities have rallied more than 8 percent so far this year, and more than 20 percent from lows reached in October, leading many to believe further upside is limited as the S&P flirted with the 1,360 level, a high hit last May.

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(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits last week held at the lowest level since the early days of the 2007-2009 recession, signaling that the battered labor market is healing. Workers filed 351,000 initial claims for state unemployment benefits, the same as in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

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(Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp announced steps to reassure investors about its ability to pay down debt, sending its shares soaring 16 percent in early trading. The operator of Sears department stores and the Kmart discount chain said it intends to separate its Sears Hometown and Outlet businesses and certain hardware stores through a rights offering expected to raise $400 million to $500 million.

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(Reuters) - European banks could face more pressure from regulators and politicians worried that big cuts in bonuses have barely dented a high-pay culture sustained by massive hikes in base salaries. A string of banks have grabbed headlines with big reductions in handouts to staff for 2011. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), 82 percent state-owned after a government bailout, is to cut its bonus payouts for 2011 by 58 percent.

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(Reuters) - Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said on Thursday U.S. economic conditions were improving and repeated his view that further easing from the U.S. central bank was not needed. "The tone is a lot better. It's not brilliant; we don't have enough new hiring taking place, (but we're) definitely moving in the right direction," Fisher told CNBC television.

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(Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Wednesday as an encouraging U.S. housing report offset soft euro zone data, while the S&P 500 struggled to break through a high not seen since last May. The benchmark S&P is up 8.3 percent for the year and more than 20 percent from October lows. But the index has been unable to convincingly pierce the 1,360 level, a high hit May 3 and a key resistance point that could spark further gains if broken.

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(Reuters) - Fitch cut Greece's long-term ratings on Wednesday to its lowest rating above a default, becoming the first ratings agency to make the widely expected downgrade after the country announced a bond exchange plan to ease its massive debt burden. It said Greece would be designated as having technically defaulted after the bond exchange is formalized, but the new bonds would be give and new rating.

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(Reuters) - U.S. home resales surged in January to a 1-1/2 year high and the supply of properties on the market was the lowest in almost seven years, pointing to a nascent housing recovery. The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday existing home sales increased 4.3 percent to an annual rate of 4.57 million units last month, the highest since May 2010.

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(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (C.N) and UBS AG (UBSN.VX), in a series of disclosures to law-enforcement officials, have provided crucial information to investigators in multiple countries as part of inquiries into whether the world's biggest banks manipulated a global benchmark interest rate, according to people familiar with the situation. The two banks, linked by a trader who worked at both, have provided closely guarded details to U.S., UK, Japanese and Canadian regulators about how their traders and those at other banks allegedly sought to influence the yen-denominated London interbank offered rate, known as Libor, according to people familiar with the probes and court and regulatory documents. Spokespeople for Citigroup and UBS declined to comment.

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(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and more than a half dozen other major banks are being hit with a new lawsuit over $949 million in residential mortgage-backed securities. A summons was filed Tuesday by Sealink Funding Ltd, an Irish entity that oversees risky RMBS, in New York state Supreme Court.

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