Market ends day mixed
as investor jitters persist

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By Amy Baldwin
Associated Press

NEW YORK >> Caution dominated the stock market today following a bombing outside a U.S. government office in Pakistan. Stocks ended the session narrowly mixed, but failed to save the market from its fourth straight losing week.

Investors were wary of holding onto stocks for fear of more attacks over the weekend. A spate of bad news about the health of business -- revenue warnings from Lucent and Sprint PCS, downgrades of telecommunications stocks and a decline in consumer sentiment -- also held the market back.

"There are so many reasons for investors to be worried. They were worried there would be more terror attacks, and there has been one. They have been worried about the economy and earnings, and there is very good reason," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at First Albany Corp.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers about 9 to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was heavy. The Dow ended down 28.59, or 0.3 percent, at 9,474.21. The loss was moderate compared with an early drop of 241.81 and triple-digit declines on Tuesday and yesterday.

The broader market was mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.30, or 0.2 percent, to 1,007.26. But the Nasdaq composite index rose 7.79, or 0.5 percent, to 1,504.65, recovering from an early loss of 51.42. And the Russell 2000 index rose 3.09, or 0.7 percent, to 459.07.

The price of the Treasury's 10-year note was up 11/16 point today, while its yield fell to 4.81 percent from 4.90 percent late yesterday. Two-year Treasury notes were up 5/32 point and yielded 2.89 percent, down from 2.98 percent yesterday.

"You can't blame investors for being very, very demoralized. ... The stock market is going down and their nest eggs are shrinking," Johnson said.

Downgrades of telecommunication and wireless stocks by various brokerages, including Salomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch, weighed on the market. Qualcomm dropped $2.49 to $29.91.

Sprint PCS plunged 26.5 percent, down $1.59 at $4.40, after saying yesterday that it expects to add fewer new customers than expected this year and that annual revenue will also be weaker than had been anticipated. Lucent fell 7 cents to $2.73, after warning yesterday of lower-than-expected third quarter revenues.

Overseas, market fell sharply. Japan's Nikkei stock average declined 2.0 percent. In Europe, France's CAC-40 fell 2.9 percent, Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 3.0 percent, and Germany's DAX index plunged 3.7 percent.