1:00 pm : The major indices posted modest gains to close at fresh 52-week highs following a holiday-shortened session in extremely light volume.

Thursday marked an extremely slow session, as expected, as many market participants were off their desks as they took an extended weekend ahead of Christmas. A total of 287 mln shares exchanged hands on the NYSE, well below the one year average of 1.4 bln.  Buying interest was broad-based, with nine of the 10 sectors posting a gain. Tech outperformed with a gain of 1.0%, while healthcare underperformed, closing near the unchanged mark.

There was a dearth of corporate items, but there were two key economic releases.

On a positive note, weekly initial jobless claims dropped by a larger-than-expected amount to 450,000 from 480,000 in the prior week. This beat the consensus estimate of 470,000 and was the lowest level since fall 2008. While the labor market remains weak, the trend in jobless claims has been heading in the right direction.

Separately, November durable goods orders rose 0.2% month-over-month, which was worse than the economist consensus of 0.5%. But durable goods orders excluding aircraft rose 2.0% month-over-month, which was better than consensus of 1.1%. The latter data point also saw a positive revision to a decrease of 0.7% compared to the original reading that showed a decline of 1.3%.

As a reminder, the market is closed Friday for Christmas.DJ30 +54.03 NASDAQ +16.05 SP500 +5.86 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1645/597 mln/932 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2141/287 mln/781

1:12PM Elec For Imaging announces final results of its modified Dutch auction tender offer (EFII) 12.28 +0.03 : Co announced the final results of its previously announced modified "Dutch Auction" tender offer, which expired at 12:00 midnight, New York City time, on December 18, 2009. Based on the final count provided by Mellon Investor Services LLC, the depositary for the tender offer, 8,326,662 shares were validly tendered and delivered and not withdrawn in connection with the tender offer. EFI accepted for purchase 5,490,196 shares, at a price of $12.75 per share, for a total cost of approximately $70 million, excluding fees and expenses related to the tender offer.

1:08PM NYMEX Energy Closing Prices (COMDX) : Feb crude oil closed higher by $0.73 to $77.40, Jan nat gas finished down 19.1 cents to $5.630, Jan heating oil settled higher by 1.32 cents to $2.0250 and Jan RBOB gasoline gained 1.44 cents to end at $1.9810.

1:04PM COMEX Metals Closing Prices (COMDX) : Feb gold closed higher by $10.80 to $1104.80, March silver rose 25 cents to end at $17.44 and March copper rose 8.9 cents to finish at $3.2925.