U.S. stocks were higher Thursday, but well off earlier highs, as positive economic data was released.

European markets were boosted by news Deutsche Bank is contemplating a share issue which will raise up to $11.4 billion.

"We might have a little bit of risk aversion going on since those Deutsche Bank headlines came out about the capital raise," David Lutz, managing director of trading, Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore told Reuters Thomson.

Seconds before the close of trading Thursday the Dow Jones Industrials were up 28.23 points or 0.27% at 10,415.24.

The tech laden Nasdaq Composite was up 7.33 points 0.33% at 2,236.20.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was up 5.33 points or 0.49% at 1,104.19.

The U.S. dollar was marginally lower. The euro inched up to 1.2705. The Japanese yen was little changed at 83.80, while sterling advanced to 1.5434.

The Swiss franc was weaker at 1.0149, whereas the Australian dollar jumped to .9236.

The Canadian dollar was slightly firmer at 1.0334.