U.S. stocks end off highs as European bank worries return

(MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks on Thursday posted a second day of gains, with the Dow industrials just a few points away from posting gains for 2010, as investors cheered a drop in weekly jobless claims and an improvement in the trade deficit.

The market pared its gains, however, after a report Deutsche Bank might sell stock to raise billions in cash.

"They will likely not be the only bank that will have to raise more money," Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, said after Bloomberg reported Deutsche Bank AG /quotes/comstock/13*!db/quotes/nls/db (DB 59.97, -0.02, -0.03%) was considering a stock sale to raise as much as $11.4 billion.

While the report concerning Germany's largest bank triggered a softening in equities and the euro, Boockvar said the paring of gains "came in context of a market that keeps running up above 1,100 [on the S&P 500] and then stalling out." (more)