Great Week for Stocks Ends on a Mixed Note
Stocks ended mostly lower Friday after four days of big gains, but the profit taking was mild and the recent market leader -- the technology sector -- continued to show strength.
In other trading, oil prices slipped to a new three-month low, and the dollar surged against the euro and the yen.
In an uneventful session, the Dow Jones industrial average eased 21.28 points, or 0.2%, to 10,471.91, after gaining 353 points in the previous four days.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index was down 1.80 points, or 0.2%, at 1,189.28.
The Nasdaq composite, dominated by tech shares, ended in positive territory, up 3.84 points, or 0.2%, to 2,046.42.
Losers outnumbered winners by narrow margins on the New York Stock Exchange and on Nasdaq. Trading was tepid.
Wall Street this week got a boost from a benign inflation report and from oil’s slide, amid a continuing buildup in U.S. crude inventories to the highest since 1999. Near-term oil futures ended Friday in New York at $46.80 a barrel, down 12 cents for the day and the lowest since Feb. 9.
For the week, the Dow jumped 3.3%, the S&P; climbed 3.1% and Nasdaq jumped 3.5%. It was the best week for the three indexes in six months.
“It’s definitely been a good run, and it’s good that you see the market today sitting back, digesting a bit, relaxing,” said Jay Suskind of Ryan Beck & Co. “We haven’t had a huge bout of profit taking here, so maybe we’re building a base and maybe we can start trading in a higher range than we did in April.”
Treasury bond yields, which had fallen this week to three-month lows, edged up Friday. The 10-year T-note ended at 4.12%, up from 4.11% on Thursday and unchanged from a week earlier.
The hot action was in currency markets: The dollar rose to a seven-month high against the euro after an opinion poll showed French voters would reject the European Union constitution, and on news that France’s economy barely grew in the first quarter.
A defeat of the EU constitution could weaken the euro by rattling investor confidence in European political integration, analysts said.
The euro ended at $1.256, down from $1.264 on Thursday. The euro has been sliding since peaking at $1.364 on Dec. 30.
The dollar also rose to 108.13 yen from 107.59.
Among the day’s highlights:
* Homebuilding stocks slipped after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said some regions of the housing market were showing signs of unsustainable “speculation” based on fast turnover of existing homes. Pulte Homes lost 89 cents to $73.55, Lennar declined 40 cents to $55.58 and Centex dropped 41 cents to $62.47.
* The rebounding tech sector was led higher by Intel, up 34 cents to $26.35; QLogic, up $1.03 to $32.53; Juniper Networks, up 63 cents to $25.73; and Google, up $2.43 to $241.61.
* America West Airlines rose 36 cents to $5.17 after it agreed to merge with US Airways Group, which is in Chapter 11. Shares of US Airways, trading on the over-the-counter bulletin board, were down 23%, or 29 cents, at 95 cents a share after climbing sharply higher Thursday.
* Maytag surged $2.84 to $14.40. Late Thursday the company said it would be purchased by private investors for $1.13 billion in cash, or $14 a share. Rival Whirlpool jumped $2.74 to $68.25.
* General Motors added 23 cents to $32.98. The New York Times reported the automaker planned to cut back on production and streamline its product offerings.
