Little Movement On Wall Street

Stocks closed mixed as rising oil prices negated a pair of upbeat economic reports.

Laurie Sullivan, Contributor

August 4, 2004

1 Min Read
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Stocks opened lower and closed mixed Wednesday, weighed down by rising oil prices that overshadowed upbeat reports on services and factory orders. The Dow Jones industrials held on to modest gains while the Nasdaq finished lower.

A report from the Institute for Supply Management showed the services sector, which accounts for 80% of the U.S. economy, demonstrated growth. The ISM's nonmanufacturing index rose to 64.8% in July, up from 59.9% in June. Wall Street had expected a reading of 61. July's index indicates continued growth across most nonmanufacturing industries.

U.S. factory orders also rose more than expected in June, and May's decline was revised to show a gain. The Commerce Department said factory orders rose 0.7% in June, after a revised 0.4% gain in May that was initially reported as a 0.3% decline. Wall Street had forecast that orders would grow 0.5% in June. The data confirmed findings by the ISM, which released a report Monday showing U.S. factories stepped up the pace in July.

On Wall Street, the Dow rose 6.27 points, or 0.1%, to 10,126.51. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.06 points, or 0.1%, to 1,098.63. The Nasdaq composite index fell 4.36 points, or 0.2%, to 1,855.06, while the InformationWeek 100 rose 0.28, or 0.1%, to 279.90. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock rose 0.01 cents, or 0.03%, to $34.24 on continued lower-than-average volume of 86 million shares.

See the full listing of all the companies in the InformationWeek 100 and the top 5 percentage winners and losers for the last closing at informationweek.com/stocks.

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