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Closing Market Report

Star-Bulletin news services


Stocks end August
with a whimper


By Amy Baldwin
Associated Press

NEW YORK >> Wall Street bumped through a quiet session today, with blue chips rising on some upbeat economic news and then dropping back as investors played it safe before the Labor Day weekend. Tech stocks lagged throughout the day.

Analysts shrugged off today's trading, which came amid very light volume ahead of the holiday. The session capped a month in which the stock market started showing some meaningful signs of health after its prolonged slump.

"We are really going to start over after Labor Day and sink our teeth into good trading," said Stephen Carl, principal and head of equity trading at The Williams Capital Group. "We have to have strong economic numbers and strong earnings numbers."

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 7.49, or 0.1 percent, at 8,663.50.

Broader indexes also ended lower. The Nasdaq composite index fell 20.86, or 1.6 percent, to 1,314.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 1.73, or 0.2 percent, to 916.07. The Russell 2000 index fell 3.44, or 0.9 percent, to 390.96.

The three major market gauges finished the week lower, ending a five-week winning streak for the Dow and S&P and a three-week run for the Nasdaq.

Despite the downturn in the indexes, advancing issues managed to outnumber decliners nearly 8 to 5 on the New York Stock Exchange where volume was extremely light at 900 million shares, down from Thursday's already slim 1.27 billion. But decliners led advancers more than 8 to 7 on the Nasdaq.

The price of the Treasury's 10-year note was down 7/32 point today, while its yield rose to 4.16 percent from 4.15 percent late yesterday. Two-year Treasury notes were down 1/32 point and yielded 2.15 percent, up from 2.13 percent yesterday.

Among the economic reports today, analysts said investors were heartened by news that manufacturing activity increased in the Midwest as the Purchasing Management Association of Chicago index of area business activity rose to 54.9 in August. The index is considered a harbinger of the Institute for Supply Management's national survey on manufacturing, due to be released Tuesday.

Overall, the data on the economy was mixed.

The Commerce Department reported that while consumers increased their spending by 1 percent in July, their incomes remained flat due to a stagnant job market. Wages and salaries themselves declined by 0.2 percent. The spending picture surpassed analysts' expectations, but the income data fell short.

Technology suffered the brunt of today's selling, tumbling on negative developments among wireless, chip and networking companies.

BellSouth fell 93 cents to $23.32 after cutting its 2002 earnings outlook, which now falls short of analysts' expectations. BellSouth blamed ongoing weakness in wireless revenues and a restructuring charge for Cingular Wireless, its venture with SBC Communications, which also fell, down $1.06 at $24.74. Additionally, Fitch cut its credit ratings on BellSouth and SBC, a Dow industrial, to "negative" from "stable."

And Lam Research Systems fell 32 cents to $11.63 and KLA-Tencor declined 71 cents to $32.91 after Merrill Lynch downgraded the chip equipment makers. Sun Microsystems fell 14 cents to $3.69, the day after cutting its quarterly revenue outlook.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average finished essentially unchanged, off 0.01 percent. In Europe, France's CAC-40 rose 1 percent, Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.4 percent, and Germany's DAX index advanced 1.4 percent.



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