Stocks inch higher as fiscal deadline nears

(AP) Stocks are edging higher on Wall Street as hopes dim that a budget deal will be reached before a deadline at the end of the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average inched up 23 points to 13,138 shortly after the opening bell Thursday. The Dow and other major market indicators are coming off three days of losses.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up three points to 1,423 and the Nasdaq rose two points to 2,992.

Chipmaker Marvell Technology Group dropped 4 percent after the company lost a patent case brought by Carnegie Mellon University. Marvell said it would fight the $1.2 billion ruling.

In Washington, President Barack Obama was returning from Hawaii in a last-ditch effort to hammer out a budget compromise by year-end.