NEW YORK >> Wall Street held mostly steady today, despite some light selling on a government report showing the economy at its weakest in eight years and worse-than-anticipated results from JDS Uniphase. Bad news sinks Dow
By Lisa Singhania
Associated PressAnalysts said the muted response reflected how accustomed investors have become to bad news, given the dismal second-quarter earnings of recent weeks. They also said the market was reassured by indications that that the outlook for semiconductor stocks could be improving.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 38.96 at 10,416.67, according to preliminary calculations, cutting short a two-day winning streak.
Broader stock indicators advanced. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 2.89 to 1,205.82, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 6.11 to 2,029.07.
Advancing issues led decliners nearly 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,731 rising, 1,361 falling and 216 unchanged. Volume came to nearly 1.2 billion shares.
The Russell 2000 index fell 0.06 to 485.01. The NYSE composite index rose 1.58 to 613.56. The American Stock Exchange composite index climbed 6.17 to 897.62.
The price of the Treasury's 10-year note rose 7/32 to 99 9/32, while its yield fell 3 basis points to 5.096. The price of the 30-year note rose 13/32 to 99 19/32, with its yield falling 3 basis points to 5.540.
For the week, the three indexes made little progress, despite a massive selloff Monday and Tuesday that sent the Dow down 335 points. The Dow ended the week off about 1.5 percent, while the other two indicators fell by less than a percent.
"There's no catalyst on the earnings side short-term to give us a strong headwind, so we're stuck," said Robert Harrington, co-head of listed block trading at UBS Warburg. "The only good thing I can say it that the negative news is not bringing the whole market down."
Investors continued to pore over earnings reports, looking for indications of where business is headed.
JDS Uniphase was pummeled, falling 95 cents, or 10 percent, to $8.55, after reporting a wider-than-expected quarterly loss and warning of revenue shortfalls ahead. The optical networking company also announced 7,000 more job cuts -- bringing the total for the year to 16,000, or more than half of its staff.