Oil prices set another trading record overnight _ moving above $135 per barrel for the first time _ but pulled off their highs, offering some relief for investors. And the Labor Department said the number of workers seeking unemployment benefits declined by 9,000 last week to 365,000. The market expected a slight increase.

But the economic fallout from ascendent energy prices remained Wall Street's focus.

The slight advances in stocks Thursday follows a decline in the Dow Jones industrial average that totaled about 427 points, or 3.3 percent, over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday. It was the steepest two-day loss since late February. Stocks have declined in three of the past four sessions.

The spike in oil prices has fanned investors' uneasiness about inflation. One big fear is that consumers worried about rising prices for everything from gasoline to food will be less willing to reach into their wallet for other items. A pullback could deal a major blow to the economy as consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. And rising oil drives up transportation costs and countless other expenses for businesses that aren't directly dependent on consumers.

Light, sweet crude rose 46 cents to $133.61 a barrel in premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, oil topped $135.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow rose 22.72, or 0.18 percent, to 12,623.91.

Broader stock indicators also moved higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.80, or 0.27 percent, to 1,394.51, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 12.19, or 0.49 percent, to 2,460.46.

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