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Stocks slipped Thursday, erasing earlier gains as worries about a sputtering economy overshadowed a better-than-expected report on jobless claims.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 74 points, or 0.7%, the Nasdaq (COMP) composite fell 23 points, or 1%, and the S&P 500 (SPX) ticked down 8 points, or 0.8%.

An earlier bounce lost steam as investors turned their focus to the economy, bracing for the latest reading on second-quarter gross domestic product due early Friday. GDP, the broadest gauge of economic activity, is expected to show the economy grew much less than previously estimated.

"When things are as bad as they are, any news like [today’s] jobs data showing a slight improvement helps," said Gary Webb, CEO at Webb Financial Group. "But we’re still in a mess, and I think it’s going to continue to be a rocky road for the market until we see some gradual momentum."

The three major indexes finished higher Wednesday after spending most of the session in the red following an unexpected plunge in new home sales.

Economic gloom continued to hang over investors Thursday, with losers outnumbering winners by nearly two-to-one on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. Declines were broad based, with big names like Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) losing more than 1%, while winners included Boeing (BA, Fortune 500) and First Solar (FSLR).

Economy: The Labor Department said the number of people filing for first-time unemployment insurance eased to 473,000 last week, which was lower than forecast.

But the weekly jobless claims report wasn’t enough to calm jittery investors, especially with a closely-watched GDP reading on tap Friday. Economists expect the government to revise second-quarter GDP to 1.4%, a significant slowdown from the previous reading of 2.4%.

"We’re pretty much just waiting for the GDP number at this point, and everybody is anticipating a poor number," said Ron Kiddoo, CIO at Cozad Asset Management. "If it comes in as expected, we may not see much movement since we seem to already be pricing that in, but if you have a number below 1%, the market could get really ugly business cards."

Companies: PC-maker Dell (DELL, Fortune 500) said data-storage company 3PAR has accepted its $1.6 billion takeover bid, sending shares of 3PAR (PAR) down nearly 3% in regular trading. But after the market close, rival HP said it has sweetened its bid, topping Dell’s earlier offer.

Shares of Toyota (TOYOF) fell more than 1% after the automaker said it will recall more than 1 million Corolla and Corolla Matrix vehicles due to engine problems.

The Federal Aviation Administration proposed a $24 million fine against American Airlines. The airline said it will challenge the civil penalty, which would be the largest fine in FAA’s history. Shares of AMR Corp. (AMR, Fortune 500), which owns American Airlines, fell nearly 1%.

World markets: European shares rallied. The CAC 40 in France ended 0.7% higher, Britain’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.9% and the DAX in Germany added 0.2%.

Asian markets ended mixed. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index increased 0.7%, and the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.3%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.1%.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar fell against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.

Oil futures for October delivery rose 84 cents to settle at $73.36 a barrel. Gold for December delivery fell $3.60, settling at $1,237.70 an ounce.

Bonds: The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 2.50% from 2.54% late Wednesday.

Are you under the age of 35 and pulling your money out of the stock market? What’s your investing strategy amid the current economic uncertainty? Are you still willing to take on more risk? E-mail your story to Hibah.Yousuf@turner.com and you could be part of an upcoming feature. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here.  

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SEPTA has added several new features to its mobile website, m.septa.org.

Android, iPhone and other smartphone users can now look up fares, search for sales locations by ZIP code and view regional rail and transit service maps. Users will also find more detailed station profile pages with a Google Maps locator, information on special service for sporting and other events and a newsroom.

The mobile site doesn’t automatically redirect yet, so users will have to type the site — m.septa.org — directly into their browsers and those not using modern smartphone browsers like iPhone, Android or the new Palm and Blackberry may have difficulty using some parts of the site, SEPTA said.

SEPTA first launched the mobile site in December 2009, making tools like its Next to Arrive and TrainView accessible by cell phone low interest personal loan.

SEPTA commuters were also provided another option for information on-the-go earlier this month with the addition of SEPTA alerts to ReadyNotifyPA, a free emergency text and e-mail alert system.

Regional rail commuters on SEPTA were affected Tuesday morning by power problems attributed to Amtrak. Some passengers had to leave trains short of their destinations and were directed to buses or subways. At one point service was suspended before starting up, with delays, later in the morning.

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McAfee Inc.'s relatively new chief financial officer, Jonathan Chadwick, could be in line for a major windfall from thousands of stock awards he was granted just two weeks before Intel Corp. bought the company.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Chadwick was granted 97,500 performance-based stock units and 125,000 restricted stock units as part of his overall compensation package on August 6 when the stock closed at $32.55.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) this week said it will pay $48 a share for McAfee (NYSE:MFE) saving account payday loan.

Chadwick joined McAfee as CFO on June 14 after a number of years at Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO).

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Chadwick's shares are eligible to vest in tranches over the next three years. They are subject to his "continued service to McAfee until each vesting date."

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State energy regulators said late Friday that Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. can move forward with its $835 million plans to upgrade to a so-called "smart grid."

The Maryland Public Service Commission will not, however, allow the utility to pay for the project as it's built, through a surcharge on customers' bills. BGE had said it would not go forward with the project without that ability. Spokesman Rob Gould said the utility is reviewing the order and will respond soon.

Assuming BGE officials accept the PSC's counter-proposal, the order could move forward a project that will see to the installation of "smart" electric meters that encourage customers to use less power.

The order could also help preserve a $200 million stimulus grant BGE was awarded for the project. That grant and the project were thrown into doubt in June when the PSC rejected the utility's smart grid proposal. Regulators said the plans weighed too much of the cost on electricity ratepayers.

But in the Friday order, they were pleased with changes BGE made.

"The company obviously attempted, in good faith, to address the issues that precluded us from approving the Initiative before," the PSC wrote. "Although BGE’s revisions do not entirely cure the concerns that caused us to deny approval the first time, we have heard and believe we have addressed BGE’s countervailing concerns."

The regulators decided that BGE should pay for the smart grid improvements through the normal distribution charges it places on customers, because the project represents "a large, but classic, investment in BGE’s distribution infrastructure."

U.S. Department of Energy officials said in a PSC filing earlier this month they would decide whether to reallocate BGE's grant by Aug. 16.

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Granite City Food & Brewery’s second quarter loss was nearly 80 percent smaller than in the same period last year as the restaurant chain boosted sales and cut administrative costs.

St. Louis Park-based Granite City (Nasdaq: GCFB) reported late Tuesday that it saw a loss of $579,734, or 8 cents per share, for the quarter ended June 29. That compares to a loss of $2.5 million, or 94 cents per share, for the same quarter last year.

Restaurant sales increased 5.1 percent to $23.2 million in the most recent quarter. Comparable-restaurant sales increased 5.3 percent to $22.2 million.

Guest counts at Granite City’s restaurants were up 4.6 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, administrative expenses were $1.7 million in the second quarter, down about $800,000 from a year earlier saving account pay day loan.

“We could feel the momentum building with our customers during the first quarter, and we can see by the second quarter results that we have been operating at a level that satisfies our customer’s expectations and drives home sales and cash flow,” Steve Wagenheim, Granite City’s president and CEO, said in a news release.

“We continue to remain cautiously optimistic that this momentum will continue throughout 2010 which will allow us to improve our cash position and overall operating results.”

Granite City operates 26 restaurants in 11 states.

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The U.S. Postal Service reported a $3.5 billion loss in its most recent quarter Thursday, as mail volume plummets and retiree health care costs mount.

The USPS, a self-supporting government agency that receives no tax dollars, said operating revenue declined 1.8% to $16 billion during the fiscal 2010 third quarter compared to a year earlier, while operating expenses spiked 4.2% to $19.5 billion.

The quarterly loss was the fourteenth in the last sixteen quarters, the postal service said.

"A significant portion of USPS losses in the past few years has been due to an unprecedented decline in mail volume — down more than 20% since 2007," the USPS said in a statement. "The replacement of letter mail and business-transaction mail by electronic alternatives continues to cause downward pressure on mail volume."

During the third quarter alone, mail volume slipped 1.7% to 40.9 billion pieces. The USPS, which relies solely on the sale of postage-related products and services to generate revenue, has projected that total mail volume will fall more than 5% on an annual basis for the 2010 fiscal year, which ends September 30.

Making the problem worse is a federal law passed in 2006 that requires the Post Office to pay between $5.4 and $5.8 billion into its prepaid retiree health benefits each year. USPS chief financial officer Joseph Corbett said making the $5.5 billion payment that’s due to the retiree fund Sept. 30 will threaten the agency’s cash flow for the next fiscal year.

"Given current trends, we will not be able to pay all 2011 obligations," Corbett said. "Despite ongoing aggressive cost reductions totaling over $10 billion in the last three years, it is clear that a liquidity problem is looming and must be addressed through fundamental changes requiring legislation and changes to contracts."

Among the cost-cutting initiatives, the USPS has reduced total work hours by 63 million — equivalent to 36,000 full-time employees — this year to match lower mail volume.

Still, the agency has lost a total of $5.4 billion so far in 2010, 13% more than what the cash-strapped agency lost during the first three quarter of fiscal 2009.

Earlier this year, the USPS estimated that it will incur about $238 billion in losses in the next 10 years if Congress doesn’t permit it to revamp its outdated business model.

"Securing the fiscal stability of the Postal Service will require continued efforts in all of these areas, as well as further review of retiree health benefit prefunding," said postmaster general John Potter.

"It also will require that the Postal Service gain flexibility within the law to move toward five-day delivery, to adjust our network as needed, to develop new products the market demands, and to work with our unions to meet the challenges ahead," he added.  

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Google users in China were temporarily blocked from accessing the search engine, the company said Thursday, but the site was was once again working a few hours later.

A notice posted on Google’s site had said all services other than Gmail were partially or fully blocked in mainland China. No further details were posted.

But later Thursday evening, a Google spokeswoman said in an e-mailed statement to CNNMoney.com that the issue had been resolved.

"Because of the way we measure accessibility in China, it’s possible that our machines could overestimate the level of blockage. That seems to be what happened … when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China are accessing our properties normally," the spokeswoman said.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and China have been at odds for months over censorship issues in the country. In January, Google said it was considering leaving China.

Two months later, Google moved its servers out of mainland China to Hong Kong and said it would stop censoring its search results in the country. Google redirected its Chinese users from google.cn to its Hong Kong site, google.com.hk, which offers uncensored search results.

Because Google was not hosting its search operations within mainland China, the company was not forced to acquiesce to China’s censorship laws. As such, it was up to the Chinese government to block access to the results it deemed objectionable.

But earlier this month, Google said it had renewed its license with the Chinese government and would be allowed to continue operating in the country — though the search giant did not make any concessions regarding censorship.

Google shares were down 1% in after-hours trading. 

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Architects who worked on two private school projects and a botanical garden research center won top awards from the Honolulu chapter of the American Institute of Architects Thursday night.

“Submissions utilized the latest technological advances to the fullest, yet remained wonderfully humane to the user,” chapter President Charles Kaneshiro said in a prepared statement. “This delicate balancing act is just one of the achievements we celebrate with our members in the Design Awards this year.”

The Honolulu chapter represents AIA Hawaii members on Oahu, Kauai and the Big Island. Membership includes 800 architects, associates and allied design professionals who are working in fields surrounding architecture.

The 52nd annual Design Awards went to the following architects and projects:

Award of Excellence:

Hanahauoli School Poe Classroom & Administration Building — architect: Lorrin Matsunaga, Urban Works.

Hawaii Preparatory Academy Energy Laboratory — architect: David Croteau, Flansburgh Architects.

Juliet Wichman Botanical Research Center — architect: Dean Sakamoto, Dean Sakamoto Architects.

Award of Merit:

Assembly House — architect: James Zak, Zak Architecture.

Finish Line House — architect: Jeffrey Long, Long & Associates Architects and Interiors.

Hawaiian Hall at Bishop Museum — architect: Glenn Mason, Mason Architects.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union — architect: William Brizee, Architects Hawaii.

Koa Kea Hotel & Resort — architect: Max Guenther, Peter Vincent Architects.

Manoa Makeover — architect: Robin Lee, Robin Lee, AIA.

McCully Moiliili Fire Station — architect: Lorrin Matsunaga, Urban Works.

Trump International Hotel & Tower — architect: Masato Tochika, Benjamin Woo Architects.

Unbuilt Award (recognizing projects currently unfinished or purely theoretical work):

Ka Haka Ula O Keelikolani College of Hawaiian Language Building — architect: Robert Iopa, WCIT Architecture.

Mayor’s Choice Award:

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The University of Hawaii at Hilo’s College of Pharmacy is on track to receive full accreditation next year, according to an announcement issued Monday.

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, a national agency that sets standards for the education of pharmacists, voted to continue the path for accreditation, the university said.

“We have diligently concentrated on meeting every one of the 30 standards set aside by ACPE so we certainly anticipated a positive outcome,” said Dr. John M. Pezzuto, dean of the college of pharmacy. “But it never pays to be overconfident, and we didn’t want to overlook the obvious Faxless payday loans. There is more work to be done before we are accredited next year, and we are just as dedicated as ever to fulfill our promise to our inaugural class.”

The College of Pharmacy is currently housed in temporary facilities on the UH Hilo campus, with plans for a permanent building under way.

The College of Pharmacy and will graduate its first class in the spring of 2011.

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Shares of UPS surged Thursday after the world’s largest delivery company reported sales and earnings that beat analysts’ expectations and raised its outlook for the rest of the year.

UPS (UPS, Fortune 500) was up $3.60 a share, or 6%, to $63.61 in afternoon trading.

The rally came after UPS said second-quarter earnings surged 90% on strong sales in the United States and abroad. Big Brown also said it expects earnings to grow this year despite the "slow pace of the U.S. recovery."

Investors cheered the results because UPS, which delivers consumer products around the world, is seen as a proxy for overall economic activity. Stocks were up more than 2% with about two hours left in the session.

"The market is adjusting to the idea that companies can still perform in a slow growth environment," said James Ragan, an analyst who covers UPS at Crowell, Weedon & Co.

While the results benefited from an easy comparison to last year, Ragan said investors were encouraged to see that sales at UPS continued to grow despite signs the economic recovery has hit a soft patch easy payday loans.

"I think people are feeling today that there’s still room for revenue growth," he said.

UPS said revenue in the quarter jumped nearly 13% to $12.2 billion.

The Atlanta-based company said it earned $845 million, or 84 cents a share, in the second quarter. That’s up from $445 million, or 44 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 77 cents per share, according to consensus estimates from Thomson Financial.

Looking ahead, UPS said it expects 2010 earnings to be in a range of $3.35 to $3.45 a share. Analysts had been expecting full-year earnings of $3.27 a share. 

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