U.S. stocks opened nearly flat Thursday, as investors meditated on a batch of mixed earnings from major retailers.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the world's largest retailer, reported before the opening bell its third quarter diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of 1.15 U.S. dollars above market expectations and consolidated net sales for the third quarter of 118.1 billion dollars shy of analyst estimates. The retailer giant' s shares opened at 80.94 dollars apiece, up 2.2 percent.

Shortly after Wednesday' s closing bell, JC Penney delivered mixed earnings, with a narrower-than-expected loss of 77 cents per share for the third quarter, and revenue of 2.76 billion dollars missing analyst forecasts. The department store firm' s shares opened at 7.08 dollars per share, slumping 8.8 percent.

Also on Wednesday, another department store chain Macy's Inc. reported that its third quarter earnings per diluted share rose by 30 percent year on year to 61 cents in the third quarter, beating analysts' expectations. But its total sales in the quarter slipped 1.3 percent from last year to 6.195 billion U.S. dollars, missing market consensus.

Investors are also looking to U.S. retail sales for October due out Friday by the Commerce Department which may shed more light on the health of consumer spending in the world' s largest economy.

On the economic front, in the week ending November 8, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims came out at 290,000, an increase of 12,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 278,000, said the Labor Department Thursday. The latest number was higher than market consensus.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 15.15 points, or 0.09 percent, to 17,597.05. The S&P 500 rose 1.47 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,039.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 7.19 points, or 0.15 percent, to 4,682.32.

On the previous trading day, U.S. stocks ended moderately mixed, with the blue-chip Dow and the broader S&P 500 briefly hitting all-time intraday highs. Endi

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