Stocks pull back
on light trading

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By Amy Baldwin
Associated Press

NEW YORK >> Wall Street marked the first anniversary of the terror attacks today with remembrances of those who died and subdued trading. Stocks closed lower on very low volume.

Trading was delayed for a memorial service at the World Trade Center site. By 11 a.m., most financial markets were open, but trading at the New York Stock Exchange started at noon as officials there took part in the ceremonies a few blocks away.

Still, stocks were not heavy on the minds of those who gathered in New York's financial district, where the names of the thousands of victims were read and the strains of a Schubert string quartet were heard.

Advancing issues and decliners were about even on the NYSE. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 21.44, or 0.3 percent, to 8,581.17. Earlier, the Dow rose as much as 124.

The broader market also gave up earlier gains to finish lower. The Nasdaq composite index fell 4.64, or 0.4 percent, to 1,315.45, retreating from a 27-point gain from earlier. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.13 to 909.45, giving back an advance of 14. The Russell 2000 index, the barometer of smaller company stocks, fell 0.79, or 0.2 percent, to 393.37.

The price of the 10-year note fell 17/32 point, sending its yield up to 4.06 percent from 4.01 percent yesterday. The 2-year note slipped 3/32 point. Its yield advanced to 2.17 percent from yesterday.

The gains faded partly on disappointing economic news from the Federal Reserve, which acknowledged that the economy experienced slow and uneven growth during July and August.

"Today has an emotional quality to it, but nothing has changed fundamentally. ... You still have a soft economy," said Larry Wachtel, market analyst at Prudential Securities.

Market observers aren't reading too much into this week's trading as emotions run high on Wall Street and there is little economic or earnings news for balance. And, volume was very light with well under a billion shares trading hands on the NYSE.

After this week, analysts expect investors to return their focus to the economy, and will trade based on the perceived strength of its recovery.

"There is no question that people are extremely reflective of what this day meant and what this means for nation. ... All that said, from the investment perspective, it is extremely interesting that those who are paid to do this for a living are focused on getting beyond today. They still have their jobs and they are very information thirsty," said Bill Meade, managing director at RBC Capital Markets.

Many investors -- individuals and institutional -- were refraining from making big trades today as they focus on friends and family.

"This is in the back of my head every day and it never goes away," said Richie Weppler, who works on the floor of the American Stock Exchange. He wiped tears from his cheeks as he was coming out of Trinity Church, just up the street from the NYSE. "This helps," he said, nodding at the church.

Weppler said he lost five co-workers in the attacks.

Microsoft fell $1.21 to $48.58, Citigroup stumbled 73 cents to $30.14, and Wal-Mart declined 58 cents to $54.20.

But Tyco, the most heavily traded NYSE issue, rose $1.90 to $17.80 on news that the conglomerate, mired in accounting scandals, hired David FitzPatrick, the chief financial officer at United Technologies Corp., as its new financial chief.

Last year, the market shut down for four days following the attacks and stocks dropped spectacularly when trading resumed, hitting their post-Sept. 11 lows on Sept. 21.

While the market recovered within a few months, weeks of selling this spring and summer took stocks to four- and five-year lows and the broader market retreated beneath the Sept. 21 lows.

The S&P is 5.9 percent, below its low of 965.80. The Nasdaq is 7.6 percent, below its low of 1,423.19. But the Dow is 4.2 percent, above its Sept. 21 low of 8,235.81.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average finished up 1 percent. In Europe, France's CAC-40 rose 3 percent, Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.8 percent, and Germany's DAX index advanced 2.6 percent.