NEW YORK, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street pared some early losses but still struggled near neutral line Thursday as investors hold back before Friday's monthly employment report.

    Stocks rebounded from earlier lows as upbeat December retail sales reports were released and increased forecasts lifted some retailers.

    However, traders were still cautious, awaiting the government's December nonfarm payrolls report which is expected to shed more light on economic recovery and set the tone for the market in following weeks.

    After losing just 11,000 nonfarm payrolls in November, some analysts expect payrolls to have declined by another 10,000 last month, lifting the unemployment rate to 10.1 percent while others believe the report may show some job creation.

    In a separate report released by the Labor Department Thursday, initial claims for jobless benefits rose 1,000 to 434,000 in the week ended Jan. 2, better than analysts expected.

    The Dow Jones added 4.91 to 10,578.59. Broader indexes were trading narrowly mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index inched up 0.45 to 1,137.59 and the Nasdaq dipped 7.44 to 2,293.65.

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