Star-Bulletin news services
NEW YORK >> Investors took a cautious approach today ahead of next week's rush of earnings reports, sending stocks lower for the third time in four sessions. Mixed economic and earnings news contributed to the sluggish performance. Earnings focus
hurts stocksBy Amy Baldwin
Associated Press"The market is nervous that in the near term, with earnings coming out in the next couple of weeks, it will be a bumpy ride," said Robert Harrington, co-head of listed block trading at UBS Warburg.
Declining issues had a narrow lead over advancers on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was light.
The market's major gauges all finished lower today and posted weekly losses as well. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 17.92, or 0.2 percent, at 8,203.41.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 6.76, or 0.5 percent, to 1,358.85. The Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 3.28, or 0.4 percent, to 868.30. Russell 2000 index fell 1.39, or 0.4 percent, to 371.30. For the week, the Nasdaq lost 1.8 percent, the S&P gave up 1.2 percent and the Russell slipped 0.5 percent.
The price of the Treasury's 10-year note was down 7/32 point, while its yield rose to 3.97 percent from 3.95 percent yesterday. Two-year Treasury notes were down 1/16 point and yielded 1.64 percent, up from 1.61 percent yesterday.
Investors are paying close attention to the economy and first-quarter earnings results, the bulk of which will be released during the next two weeks. Analysts expect the next few weeks to bring choppy trading but no steep declines as investors already anticipate that earnings will be weak.
Today's economic news was mixed.
The Commerce Department said retail sales increased by 2.1 percent in March, much better than the 0.6 percent rise economists predicted and an improvement from the 1.3 percent drop in February. Much of the strength was owed to automobile sales.
And consumer sentiment improved more than expected in recent weeks, according to the University of Michigan's midmonth survey as reported by Dow Jones Newswires. The report on consumer sentiment for April showed an increase to 83.2 from 77.6 in March, well above expectations for a smaller increase to 78.0.
On the downside, the Labor Department reported wholesale prices jumped by 1.5 percent last month due to a surge in energy costs leading up to the war. The increase in the Producer Price Index, which measures costs before they reach consumers, was much bigger than the modest 0.3 percent advance economists had forecast.
Earnings news was varied.
Baker Hughes fell 59 cents to $29.80 after warning of lower-than-anticipated profits. But Juniper Networks rose 68 cents to $9.09 after beating first-quarter earnings estimates by a penny a share.
Auto stocks saw some gains following the retail sales report. General Motors rose 33 cents to $34.83. But some retailers fell for a second day, adding to losses from yesterday when many of them reported disappointing sales for March. Wal-Mart fell $1.60 to $52.98.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average finished down 2.1 percent. In afternoon trading in Europe, France's CAC-40 rose 1.1 percent, Britain's FTSE 100 inched up 0.1 percent and Germany's DAX index gained 1.4 percent.
STOCK QUOTES/CHARTS/DATA
