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NEW YORK - Wall Street wobbled to a mixed close Friday as fresh highs for crude oil and a weak reading on consumer confidence took the luster off data showing a surprise rebound in US housing starts.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 5.86 points (0.05 percent) to 12,986.80 at the closing bell, recouping early losses of as much as 100 points.
The Nasdaq composite shed 4.88 points (0.19 percent) to 2,528.85 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index eked out a gain of 1.78 points (0.19 percent) to close at 1,425.35.
As the market digested solid gains from Thursday, investors learned that new home construction starts rose 8.2 percent from March to an annual rate of 1.032 million units.
The jump was the strongest since January 2006 and sharply higher than analysts' consensus forecast for a cutback in April to 940,000 units.
Economists said that even though the gains were largely in multifamily homes and may represent a statistical fluke, the report was good news.
"While we may not yet have absolutely hit bottom, it is beginning to look as if the end may be near," said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors.
But the positive news was overshadowed by a spike in oil to a record intraday high of 127.98 dollars per barrel.
Analysts at Briefing.com said the market also was hurt by a consumer sentiment survey from the University of Michigan whose index fell to 59.5 against expectations of 62.0, a bad sign for consumer spending.
But Fred Dickson, analyst at DA Davidson & Co., said the market "appears to be very resilient in light of less than encouraging economic news."
He added: "Equity investors appear to be just barely sticking their toes into the water ... We suspect investors continue to build up cash waiting for just the right moment to spring forth and commit significant funds to the equity market."
Among stocks in focus, Yahoo fell 0.32 percent to 27.66 dollars as traders locked in gains from the prior session when billionaire Carl Icahn said he would launch a move to unseat the Yahoo board and reopen merger talks with Microsoft, down 1.51 percent at 29.99.
General Electric slipped 0.74 percent to 32.13 dollars after announcing a possible sale or spin-off of its appliance division to concentrate on faster-growing businesses.
Bonds dipped slightly. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond rose to 3.850 percent from 3.843 percent Thursday and that on the 30-year bond increased to 4.579 percent against 4.576 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
- AFP /ls
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