NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks traded mixed Monday after another spike in oil prices
and a decline in regional manufacturing activity touched off fresh concerns
about the well-being of the economy.
A declining dollar helped push up the price of oil to nearly $140 per
barrel. Light, sweet crude jumped $3.05 to $137.91 on the New York Mercantile
Exchange.
Treasury prices were little changed in the early going Monday. Short-term
Treasurys declined sharply last week amid inflation fears.
Economic news stirred some concern among investors. The New York Federal
Reserve Bank's Empire State index indicated that manufacturing activity in New
York State continued to weaken in June. The index fell to a negative 8.7 from a
negative 3.7 a month earlier.
The report is the earliest of several monthly regional snapshots that
investors look to for insights on economic activity.
Wall Street is worried that rising prices in an already uncertain economy
will cause consumers to tamp down spending. A pullback could deal a blow to the
economy, as consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic
activity.
In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 48.20, or 0.39
percent, to 12,259.15.
Broader stock indicators were mixed after trading lower shortly after the
opening bell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.31, or 0.24 percent, to
1,356.72, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 0.79, or 0.03 percent, to
2,255.29.
The moves follow a strong session Friday that left the Dow with a weekly
advance and pared the declines seen by the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite index
for the week.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its
price, was flat at 4.26 percent from late Friday. The dollar was mixed against
other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who was to appear at the Senate
Finance Committee's Health Reform Summit to discuss challenges in health care,
didn't make comments about interest rates or Fed policy in his prepared remarks.
The central bank's rate-setting arm is scheduled to meet next week.
In corporate news, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. reported a second-quarter
loss of $2.87 billion, or $5.14 per share. The figures were unchanged from what
the nation's No. 4 investment bank projected last week. The loss, the first for
Lehman since it went public in 1994, follows misplaced hedges and trading
positions. Lehman rose $1.97, or 7.6 percent, to $27.78.
Investors were reviewing a decision by insurer American International Group
Inc. to name former Citigroup Inc. executive Robert Willumstad as chief
executive. Willumstad replaces Martin Sullivan after AIG logged billions in
losses on bad bets in the mortgage market. AIG, one of the 30 stocks that
comprise the Dow industrials, rose 31 cents to $34.49.
Declining issues narrowly outnumbered advancers on the New York Stock
Exchange, where volume came to 212.8 million shares.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 0.02, or less than 0.01
percent, to 733.59.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 2.72 percent. In morning
trading, Britain's FTSE 100 declined 0.40 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.98
percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.82 percent.
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