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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Stocks gripped the unchanged line Wednesday morning as relief about falling oil prices was tempered by disappointment that second-quarter economic growth was slower than thought.
The Dow Jones industrial average (down 50.23 to 10,412.82, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 (down 0.54 to 1,207.87, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (up 0.38 to 2,130.14, Charts) all hovered near unchanged in the early going, with the Nasdaq the most buoyant.
U.S. light sweet crude oil for October delivery fell 53 cents to $69.28 a barrel in electronic trading after Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said that the government will dip into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and lend oil to refiners hurt by Hurricane Katrina.
On Tuesday, crude oil prices rose to record highs amid worries about disruption to the oil infrastructure in the wake of the storm.
The rise in oil weighed on stocks Tuesday, but Wednesday's open was more muted.
Weighing on early sentiment was a surprise downward revision to gross domestic product growth (GDP) in the second quarter.
GDP grew at a 3.3 percent annualized rate, the Commerce Department said, down from an initial read of 3.4 percent and first-quarter growth of 3.8 percent. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected no change for second-quarter growth.
Among early stock movers, Tiffany & Co. (unchanged at $33.31, Research) shares jumped around 10 percent after the luxury retailer reported quarterly earnings that rose from a year ago and surpassed estimates. The chain also boosted its full-year earnings forecast.
Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 4.07 percent from 4.09 percent late Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
In currency trading, the dollar inched higher against the euro and the yen.
COMEX gold rose $1.10 to $436.60 an ounce, bouncing after the previous session's steep sell off.
In global trade, major Asian markets ended lower, and European markets rose at midday.
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