NEW YORK >> Stocks ended mixed in light trading today, as skittish investors refrained from doing much buying amid earnings warnings season and growing prospects of a war with Iraq. Worried market
ends mixedBy Hope Yen
Associated Press"The rhetoric of war continues," said Peter Cardillo, president and chief strategist of Global Partner Securities Inc. "It has become more a question of not if, but when, and that continues to move the market."
Declining issues outnumbered advancers 7 to 6 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was very light. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 67.49, or 0.8 percent, to close at 8,380.18, after falling as much as 55 points during the day. That came after a 1.4 percent decline last week.
The broader market ended mixed. The Nasdaq composite index fell 15.54, or 1.2 percent, to 1,275.86, having dipped 0.3 percent last week. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.29, or 0.1 percent, to 891.10, following a weekly decline of 0.5 percent. The Russell 2000 index fell 3.86, or 1 percent, to 386.13.
The price of the Treasury's 10-year note was up 1/32 point today, while its yield fell to 3.90 percent from 3.91 percent late Friday. The price of two-year Treasury notes fell 1/32, while their yield was 2.07 percent, up from 2.05 percent Friday.
The Commerce Department reported today that U.S. business inventories rose 0.4 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted $1.1 trillion. It was the third straight month of gains, offering hope for a strengthening economic recovery. Business sales also went up a strong 1.2 percent.
Still, analysts said investors remained nervous about a war with Iraq, which has helped prompt three weeks of declines among the three major market gauges.
President Bush continued to press for United Nations action against Saddam Hussein, telling Iowans in a speech today that "if Iraq's regime continues to defy us and the world (the United States) will move deliberately yet decisively to hold Iraq to account."
Secretary of State Colin Powell also resumed talks with U.N. Security Council members after calling for an undefined resolution against Iraq within four weeks, although members of Congress were split on that proposal.
Gainers included General Electric, which rose 85 cents to $27.90, after the conglomerate said it received a request for cooperation in a Securities and Exchange Commission informal investigation examining former CEO Jack Welch's post-retirement benefits.
Boeing gained $1.65 to $37.23 after the aerospace company averted a strike by its biggest union. And Red Hat climbed 59 cents to $5.84 after the software developer announced a multiyear alliance with IBM to provide Linux software and services to customers.
Decliners included Millennium Pharmaceuticals, which fell $1.52 to $10.19, after the company announced disappointing results in its drug trials for Crohn's disease.
Tyco dropped 34 cents to $16.54 on news the company would report this week making millions of dollars in undisclosed loans to employees that were later forgiven, according to The New York Times.
In Europe, France's CAC-40 declined 0.5 percent, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.9 percent, and Germany's DAX index was down 1.3 percent. Japan's financial markets were closed for Respect for the Aged Day, a national holiday.