A look at today's business news headlines:

Stocks at fresh highs in 'bull vs. bear battle' 
 
U.S. stocks managed to tick higher Thursday, pushing the Dow and S&P to their highest levels since the summer of 2008

The major indexes have been inching higher for months, but Stifel Nicolaus managing director Tom Schrader expects stocks will soon head lower

The Dow and S&P 500 failed to close above key psychological levels breached earlier in Thursday's session

"We've got a classic bull versus bear battle going at these high levels, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the market pullback between 8% and 10%," Schrader said.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 4 points at 11,989.83, the
highest since June 2008. The modest advance was led by GE, Home Depot and United Technologies. Caterpillar, which posted a fourth-quarter profit that quadrupled from a year ago and a 62% surge in revenue, was also a big gainer.

Dollar doldrums continue, despite weak yen

The dollar gained some traction against the Japanese yen Thursday, but it's still in the dumps against the world's other major currencies.

A surprise downgrade of Japan's debt sparked a rally in the U.S. dollar versus the yen Thursday, sending the buck up 1% to ¥82.98 in morning trading.

Because the downgrade ate into confidence about Japanese bonds, investors fled to the greenback as a safer alternative.

But that so-called "flight to quality" trade comes during the same time that investors have been fleeing from the dollar on renewed optimism about Europe's debt crisis.

Investors are starting to speculate that the European Central Bank may raise interest rates sooner than originally expected, and that has sent the euro rallying 6.4% against the dollar, to $1.37 since Jan. 7.

–CNNMoney.com reporters Annalyn Censky and Hibah Yousuf