Stocks were mixed in a lethargic session Thursday as investors collected profits for a second straight day despite an unexpected drop in unemployment claims.

The market was encouraged by the latest Labor Department report, which showed continued strength in the nation’s labor market. First-time jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 326,000 last week.

And crude oil futures fell slightly one day after bombings in Saudi Arabia raised new concerns about terrorism in the Middle East.

In spite of the good economic news, investors sold off large-cap stocks and booked profits before the year’s end. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 28.89 points, or 0.3 percent, at 10,800.30, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 1.34 points to 2,178.34 and the S & P; 500 edged up a tenth of a point to 1,213.55.

Among local movers, Flamemaster’s stock surged again for the third time in two weeks, gain 22.9 percent to close at $67.95. On Wednesday, the Sun Valley-based company was down 1.9 percent after a hectic day of movement as investors engaged in short covering nearly one week before the 7-for-1 stock split takes effect.

El Segundo-based global IT services business Computer Sciences Corp. gained a scant 0.4 percent to close at $56.46 after revealing that it had signed 65 previously unannounced government contracts worth nearly $427 million during the third quarter.

On the down side, Pasadena-based Wesco Financial Corp., a property and casualty insurance firm, lost 3.3 percent to close at $393 and L.A.-based newspaper publisher Daily Journal Corp. was down 3.6 percent to close at $35.85.