Wall St ends barely higher, bracing for jobs data

By Ellis Mnyandu

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks barely budged on Thursday as investors shied away from making big bets before Friday's jobs data that could shed light on the economy and the outlook for interest rates.

Though caution prevailed, shares of pharmaceutical companies such as Merck & Co (MRK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and those of utilities rose, countering profit-taking among recently strong oil and technology shares.

Health-care stocks are among sectors that have lagged the market and were seen due for a rebound, according to analysts, while high dividend-paying utilities tracked rising bond prices. The S&P utilities index rose nearly 1 percent.

"We have a little bit of calm before the storm," said Georges Yared, founder and chief investment strategist at Yared Investment Research, in Minneapolis.

"We are waiting for the jobs report tomorrow and the earnings season goes in full force in the week after next. So we are sitting here in an information vacuum."

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 6.26 points, or 0.04 percent, to end at 13,974.31. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was up 3.25 points, or 0.21 percent, at 1,542.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 4.14 points, or 0.15 percent, at 2,733.57.

The Labor Department report, due on Friday morning, is expected to show employers added 100,000 jobs outside the farm sector last month, according to economists polled by Reuters. In August, employers unexpectedly cut 4,000 jobs.

Merck's shares shot up 1.4 percent to $52.86 on the New York Stock Exchange, making the stock the Dow's top performer. Shares of rival Pfizer Inc (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which named a new research chief on Wednesday, gained 0.9 percent to $25.30.