Dow's assault on a record Blue-chip measure tests territory above all-time closing high. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks were mixed Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average briefly topping its all-time closing high for the second day in a row. At 10:11 a.m. ET, the Dow Industrials, the broader S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite were little changed. The Dow briefly rose as high as 11,741.99, above its all-time closing high of 11,722.98, hit on Jan. 14, 2000. The Commerce Department reported that spending by consumers rose 0.1 percent in August, falling short of forecasts for a 0.2 percent increase, before adjusting for a rise in price. The report also revealed that so-called core PCE deflator, one of the Federal Reserve's favored measures of inflation, was up 0.2 percent in the month, meeting economists' expectations. Shares of Research in Motion (up $17.51 to $103.57, Charts) surged in early trade after the BlackBerry maker reported better-than-expected second-quarter profits, even though the company also announced a review of stock options practices. Oil eased toward $62 a barrel as U.S. light crude fell 43 cents to $62.33 a barrel in electronic trading. Treasury prices edged higher, with the yield on the 10-year note slipping to 4.60 percent. The dollar was stronger against the euro and the yen. In corporate news, Ford Motor (down $0.07 to $8.09, Charts) announced that it will cut one in four workers at its profitable Ford Credit unit and close its branch office network in order to cut costs. Friday morning Dell (down $0.19 to $22.78, Charts) announced it was recalling about 100,000 more laptop batteries that were made by Sony (down $0.77 to $40.39, Charts), raising the total recalled to 4.2 million. |
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