NEW YORK - US stocks closed higher Thursday with sentiment lifted by a drop in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47.38 points (0.46 percent) to end at 10,444.14, a day after the market closed on a flat note.

The Nasdaq composite added 11.63 points (0.51 percent) to 2,292.31 while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 4.18 points (0.37 percent) to 1,122.97.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that 469,000 initial jobless claims were filed in the week that ended February 27, versus 498,000 the prior week, marking the first fall seen in three weeks.

Analysts had predicted the seasonally adjusted claims would hit 470,000.

Overall, fewer Americans claimed jobless benefits in the week to February 20, the department said, giving some relief to the market ahead of a much anticipated government report Friday on the unemployment situation in
February.

"The day's weekly jobless report was interpreted by some as a positive harbinger" of Friday's nonfarm payroll report, said Elizabeth Harrow of Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Analysts are predicting job losses of around 50,000 in February, pushing unemployment up from 9.7 percent to 9.8 percent.

"The initial claims report has provided some support... not so much because the report was good but because it was less bad than expected," said Briefing.com's Patrick O'Hare.

"While the pace of layoffs may be slowing, the key takeaway here is that the pace of hiring isn't accelerating to any meaningful degree," he said.

Investors remained concerned about the Greek debt crisis and other US economic data released Thursday.

"Lingering uncertainty regarding the next direction for the economy, exacerbated by festering uneasiness regarding Greece's debt problems, is hamstringing the bulls and the markets continue to be marred by a lack of conviction," analysts at Charles Schwab & Co said in a client note.

A smaller-than-expected rise in US factory orders and an unexpected drop in pending home sales "is doing little to clear up some of the economic uncertainty," the analysts said.

Among gainers was Boeing, up 1.71 percent to 65.55 dollars as the aerospace giant said it would bid for a 35-billion-dollar contract to supply aerial refueling tankers to the US Air Force.

Entertainment and media group Disney rose 2.94 percent to 32.57 dollars and soft-drink giant Coca-Cola was up 1.00 percent to 54.47 dollars, after both firms won an upgrade from brokers.

The bond market rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond fell to 3.606 percent from 3.625 percent Wednesday and that on the 30-year bond dipped to 4.556 percent from 4.586. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.