Stocks End Mixed, With Blue Chips Up
Wall Street ended mixed Friday as it closed out its worst week since early August.
Blue chips edged higher despite a rise in oil prices to a record high. But semiconductor stocks led Nasdaq lower after two chip makers gave negative outlooks.
The Dow Jones industrial average inched up 8.34 points, or 0.1%, to 10,047.24.
Among broader indexes, the Standard & Poor’s 500 added 1.75 points, or 0.2%, to 1,110.11; the Nasdaq composite fell 6.95 points, or 0.4%, to 1,879.48.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 5 to 4 on the New York Stock Exchange, but losers had a thin lead on Nasdaq.
For the week, the Dow fell 2.3%, the S&P; was down 1.6% and Nasdaq lost 1.6%. It was the worst week for the market since the first week of August.
Rising oil prices have helped drive some investors out of stocks, analysts said. On Friday, near-term crude futures in New York pushed past the previous record of $48.70 a barrel on Aug. 19, gaining 42 cents to $48.88.
That news was partly offset by a sign of strength in manufacturing: The government said durable goods orders in August, excluding transportation equipment, were up 2.3% -- an indication that businesses and consumers may be ramping up their spending.
“Manufacturing seems to be going in the right direction, but the markets continue to yawn,” said Hans Olsen, chief investment officer at Bingham Legg Advisors. “And with oil, I think, with the potential to crack $50 per barrel, it doesn’t give us a lot of reasons to move substantially higher.”
Investors also have been unnerved by recent profit warnings from a wide range of companies -- including Morgan Stanley, Wendy’s International, General Mills and Colgate-Palmolive.
The technology sector Friday was hit by more gloom from the chip sector: Philips Electronics lost 26 cents to $22.95 after it warned that its semiconductor sales in the third quarter would be flat compared with the previous quarter. And Cirrus Logic fell 19 cents to $4.89 after lowering its sales forecast for the current quarter.
Among other chip firms, Texas Instruments lost 76 cents to $21.69 and Xilinx slumped $1.42 to $27.66.
Among the day’s highlights:
* Some industrial shares may have been helped by the durable-goods report. Machinery maker Bucyrus International jumped $1.19 to $31.69, and Illinois Tool Works added 69 cents to $91.32.
Pasadena-based Ameron, which makes industrial piping, gained $1.01 to $33.22 after sinking $4.55 on Thursday, when the company said operating profit in the recent quarter was slightly above year-earlier results.
* Energy stocks rose with crude prices. XTO Energy added $1.19 to $32.59 and Unocal was up 93 cents to $41.86.
* Shares of mortgage giant Fannie Mae sank for a fifth day, off $1.64 to $65.51. Federal regulators this week said they found pervasive problems in the company’s accounting. For the week, the shares tumbled 15%, hurting many value-oriented mutual funds that have long considered the stock a core holding.
* Gap slid 44 cents to $19.35. Wachovia Securities downgraded the retailer’s shares to “market perform” from “outperform,” citing growth concerns.
* The bond market was little changed. The 10-year Treasury note yield ended at 4.03%, up from 4.02% on Thursday.
* Mexico’s benchmark stock index hit a record high, up 0.4% to 10,856.44, even as the nation’s central bank raised interest rates to quell inflation.
