Stocks were mixed in heavy, computer-driven trading Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average rallied hard in the final hour to close barely lower on the day and broad market indexes were mixed.
The Dow industrials closed down 1.09 point at 5,584.97, after dropping nearly 30 points earlier in the day. The Dow hovered at a loss of around 10 points for most of the afternoon until computerized buy programs lifted it near the close, traders said.For the week, the Dow added 114.52, more than recovering from the steep sell-off at the end of the previous week. The gain almost doubled the 66.11-point-decline of a week earlier, when the market's best-known indicator plummeted 171.24 points on March 8.
Trading was made extra volatile by Friday's quarterly "triple witching" expiration of options and futures contracts.
Volume reached 529.98 million shares as of 4 p.m. at the New York Stock Exchange, the fifth-heaviest trading day ever and well above Thursday's pace. Declining issues led advancers by nearly 9 to 8.
Broad market indexes finished mixed. The NYSE's composite index declined 0.01 to 343.39. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 0.56 to 641.43.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 8.52 to 1,099.59. The American Stock Exchange's market value index fell 0.27 to 561.51.
Blue-chip stocks dropped with the bond market, where the 30-year benchmark Treasury bond lost 17-32 point, yielding 6.73 percent.
"Today's slight downtick in the market is just coinciding with what's going on in the bond market," said Robert Froelich, chief investment strategist at Van Kampen American Capital in Oakbrook, Ill. "Banks, utilities, you expect them to move lower as the bond market gets hit."
Stocks and bonds responded to a Federal Reserve report that industrial production shot up 1.2 percent in February, the biggest advance in more than eight years.
A University of Michigan report that its consumer sentiment index rose to 95.7 in March from 88.5 in February was "definitely stronger than expected," said Todd Clark, managing director at Rodman & Renshaw Capital Group Inc.
Despite the growth in the economy, inflation appears to be in check.
The Fed said the nation's industries operated at 82.9 percent of capacity. While that is up from 82.1 percent in January, it did not suggest production bottlenecks that could lead to higher inflation.
In addition, the Labor Department said consumer prices edged up a moderate 0.2 percent in February, although analysts had expected consumer inflation to slow after jumping 0.4 percent in January.
The economic reports were considered negative for both stock and bond markets because they suggest the economy is growing too fast to persuade the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates when its policy makers meet March 26.
Meanwhile, banking and financial stocks fell as interest rates rose. Citicorp shares lost 7/8 to 773/4. Allstate fell 3/4 to 413/8.
But cyclical stocks, which rise when the economy is growing, have been rising lately on upbeat data and put in another strong day Friday. DuPont added 7/8 to 811/4. Caterpillar surged 11/8 to 72.
Technology stocks also gained. On the Big Board, IBM rose 3 to 1197/8, Compaq added 1 to 393/4, and Motorola climbed 13/4 to 555/8.
Micron Technology rose 31/2 to 325/8 on heavy volume on the NYSE. The semiconductor maker said its second-quarter earnings edged up to 87 cents a share from 86 cents a year ago.
In Nasdaq trading, Oracle Corp. rose 3/4 to 487/8. The company said net income was 33 cents a share, up from 24 cents a year ago, boosted by continuing strong demand for its computer applications programs. The software company also said it would split its shares 3-for-2 on April 16.
Oil and oil-drilling stocks eased after making strong gains in the past several sessions. Exxon fell 2 to 79. Schlumberger, an oil-driller supplier, dropped 25/8 to 773/4 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the shares, saying they had become expensive.