NEW YORK - Wall Street finished mixed in fickle trading Wednesday, with investors unsettled about the economy ahead of Friday's employment report and only somewhat relieved about sliding commodities prices.
The Commerce Department gave the market just modest comfort when it said orders for manufactured products rose by 1.3 percent in July.
The figure was higher than the 0.8 percent predicted by economists polled by Thomson Financial; the department also upwardly revised its June reading to an increase of 2.1 percent.
However, many traders brushed off the report as old news, given that it is now September.
With automakers releasing sluggish August sales and the Federal Reserve reporting weak economic activity throughout the nation, investors proceeded cautiously.
Anxiety about the Labor Department's August jobs report, due Friday, also prevented manyinvestors from making any major commitments.
Light, sweet crude futures ended the day down 36 cents at $109.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
One reason for the market's muted reaction to oil's decline is because investors are realizing that crude has fallen partly because global demand growth is waning - bad news not only for energy companies, but also for the technology and industrial sectors.
On Tuesday, stocks gave up a huge early advance only to close lower, as investors' enthusiasm about oil's sell-off gave way to concerns about the economy inthe United States and abroad.
"All the data in the last two weeks has actually been very good," said Joseph V. Battipaglia, chief investment officer at Ryan Beck & Co., pointing to Wednesday's factory orders data, falling oil prices, and the recent upward revision of second-quarter gross domestic product. "Despite all that, you didn't get a commensurate market performance. And that's troubling."
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 15.96, or 0.14 percent, to 11,532.88, after rising by as many as 37 points and falling by as many as 100.
Broader stock indicators slipped.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.60, or 0.20 percent, to 1,274.98, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 15.51, or 0.66 percent, to 2,333.73.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 3.40, or 0.46 percent, to 741.91.
Advancing issues outnumbered advancers by about 8 to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 4.94 billion shares.
Bond prices moved higher Wednesday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.70 percent from 3.74 percent in late trading on Tuesday.
The dollar rose against the euro and pound, but weakened against the yen.
European indexes fell after a European Union report showed falling exports and lower household spending caused the euro economy to shrink by 0.2 percent in the second quarter.
Britain's FTSE 100 fell 2.15 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.78 percent, and France's CAC-40 lost 2.03 percent. In Japan, the Nikkei stock index rose 0.64 percent.
Business, Pages 28 on 09/04/2008