New York stocks showed modest gains amid quiet trading ahead of the Christmas break.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 16 points to close at 9,218, after jumping 158 points Wednesday. It was the sixth straight gain for the Dow.

Advancing issues barely outnumbered declines on very light volume of about 248m shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Nasdaq Composite index fell 9.5 to 2,163 after setting a record on Wednesday. Some investors took profits after the big recent gains.

The Dow got a lift from IBM and Procter & Gamble, which hit new highs. International Business Machines rose 2-15/16 to187-15/16 and P&G added 1/4 to 93-3/4 after touching 94-13/16 earlier.

"I think anybody that wanted to do anything this week has already done it," said Peter Coolidge, senior equity trader at Brean Murray & Co. "Yesterday there was thin pre-holiday trading. I'd call today probably even thinner."

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average extended its recent gains by closing up 157.57, or 1.7%, to 9202.03, while the Nasdaq Composite Index surged 51.55, or 2.4%, to a record 2172.54.

Most European markets are closed Thursday and Friday for the Christmas holiday.

London's FTSE-100 closed 4 points, or 0.7%, lower at 5867.2 after a half-day of trading.

Asian markets were mixed. Tokyo's Nikkei average fell 72.72, or 0.5%, to 13706.73 amid continued worries that higher bond yields could hurt Japanese corporate activity and after Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of seven domestic banks.

Hong Kong shares ended 133.45, or 1.3%, higher at 10292.20, following gains in the US and European markets.