Financial stocks trade mostly lower, with insurers sustaining a broad-based pullback.

Broad gains in other areas offset insurance weakness.

Among the shares expected to see active trade in Thursday's session are those of the retailers as well as Allstate, Cigna, Cisco, CareFusion, Dr Pepper Snapple, i2, MetroPCS, MF Global, Netsuite, News Corp., Qualcomm, Sirius XM, THQ and Time Warner Cable.

Among the shares expected to see active trade in Thursday's session are those of Starbucks, CBS, Nvidia and Nasdaq.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Prudential Financial said late Wednesday that it swung to a third-quarter profit as the life insurance and annuities giant benefited from a rebound in equity and credit markets.

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