Stormy session for stocks

The stock market staggered through another volatile session Wednesday before finishing mixed. Technology and energy shares helped send the Standard & Poor’s 500 index to its lowest close in 14 months.

Stocks struggled even though the Federal Reserve’s latest survey of regional economic activity should have helped quell recession fears, analysts said.

The Fed’s “beige book” report said the economy grew modestly from mid-November through December, though at a slower pace than in a previous survey. The beige book suggested that the U.S. slowdown “doesn’t look like a precipitous one,” said Subodh Kumar, an investment strategist in Toronto.

Also Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo both reported a decline in fourth-quarter earnings, but their stocks rose as investors seemed cheered that the banks’ mortgage-loan write-offs weren’t more severe.

On the downside, chip giant Intel’s failure to meet profit forecasts for the fourth quarter, and its first-quarter sales projections that came in at the low end of analysts’ predictions, sent its shares down $2.81, or 12%, to $19.88.

Intel weighed on the Dow Jones industrial average, which sank 34.95 points, or 0.3%, to 12,466.16 after losing nearly 280 points Tuesday amid economic jitters.

The S&P; 500 index fell 7.75 points, or 0.6%, to 1,373.20, its lowest since November 2006.

The Nasdaq composite index finished down 23 points, or 1%, at 2,394.59.

Advancing issues, however, narrowly edged losers on the New York Stock Exchange.

And the battered Russell 2,000 index of smaller-company stocks edged up 2.48 points, or 0.4%, to 699.91.

Treasury bond yields, which have hit multiyear lows in recent days, bounced up a bit. The 10-year T-note climbed to 3.74% from 3.68% on Tuesday.

The dollar hit a 2 1/2 -year low against the yen before ending the day higher against the Japanese currency as well as the euro. Gold futures, which hit record levels in recent sessions, were hit by profit taking and fell $20.40 to $880.60 an ounce.

Oil prices dropped after domestic supplies rose unexpectedly last week. Crude futures settled down $1.06 at $90.84 a barrel in New York after falling below $90 for the first time since Dec. 19.

Exxon Mobil declined $2.49 to $86.53, Chevron lost $2.02 to $86.25 and ConocoPhillips retreated $3.52 to $77.09.

In the tech sector, Apple slumped for a second day, dropping $9.40 to $159.64, after new products unveiled Tuesday failed to impress investors.

The tech arena saw some cheer thanks to a deal by Oracle to buy BEA Systems for $8.5 billion. BEA jumped $2.88, or 19%, to $18.46. Oracle rose 61 cents, or 2.9%, to $21.92.

An index of financial stocks in the S&P; 500 climbed 1.3%, the biggest gain among 10 industries. Bear Stearns upgraded the sector to “market weight,” saying financial share prices reflected likely write-downs and lower earnings.

JPMorgan’s earnings report revealed relatively light exposure to sub-prime loans that resulted in a $1.3-billion write-down, much smaller than the $18.1-billion hit announced Tuesday by rival Citigroup.

JPMorgan rose $2.26, or 5.8%, to $41.43. Citigroup fell 70 cents, or 2.6%, to $26.24 after losing 7.6% on Tuesday.

Wells Fargo revealed its first decline in earnings in more than six years and reported rising losses on home equity loans. But the bank avoided a big write-down. Its stock rose 88 cents, or 3.3%, to $27.37.

Pasadena-based IndyMac jumped 52 cents, or 12%, to $5.01. The No. 2 independent U.S. mortgage lender said late Tuesday that it would cut a quarter of its workforce.

Fannie Mae climbed $1 to $37.30 and Freddie Mac rose 62 cents to $31.35 on speculation that regulators might raise limits on the size of loans the two largest mortgage-finance companies can buy or guarantee. But the Bush administration reiterated late in the day that it opposed raising the limits without regulatory changes.

Among other market highlights:

* A gauge of home builders surged 3.7%. Hovnanian Enterprises surged 70 cents, or 12%, to $6.63 after founder and Chairman Kevork Hovnanian reported that he spent more than $2 million last week on his first open-market purchases of the company’s stock in more than a decade.

* Mattel jumped $1.34, or 8%, to $17.99. Investment bank Needham & Co. upgraded the stock because its price “more than adequately discounts a host of head winds” such as slowing consumer spending and rising costs.

* Stocks continued to slide overseas. Key stock indexes fell 3.4% in Japan, 1.4% in Britain, 1.3% in Germany and 0.5% in France.