Stocks shaky after recent run

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks struggled for direction Friday morning as investors welcomed the morning's mild reading on inflation, but kept an eye on rising bond yields and higher oil and gold prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 5.93 to 12,153.75, Charts), the broader S&P 500 (down 0.07 to 1,392.21, Charts) index and the Nasdaq (down 3.48 to 2,375.22, Charts) composite all struggled near unchanged about 90 minutes into the session.

Stocks rose Thursday for the fifth time in six sessions as investors fight back from the big selloffs 2-1/2 weeks ago and this past Tuesday.

But trading was more tentative Friday morning as investors sorted through the economic news, including a mostly in line reading on consumer prices, a jump in industrial output and a drop in consumer sentiment.

Also helping in the morning: gains in some of the recently-battered subprime mortgage lenders - companies that make loans to people with weak credit.

Accredited Home Lenders (up $2.42 to $11.85, Charts) rallied almost 30 percent after saying it will sell $2.7 billion in loans at a discount as a means of buying time while it contends with a cash crunch.

Fellow subprime Fremont General (up $1.66 to $9.06, Charts), which is getting out of the business of lending to people with bad credit, said Credit Suisse First Boston boosted its credit line to $1 billion. Fremont shares jumped nearly 30 percent.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4 percent in February, after rising 0.2 percent in the previous month. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would rise 0.3 percent. The more closely watched Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent, as expected, after rising 0.3 percent in January.

Another report showed that industrial production rose 1 percent in February, versus forecasts for a rise of 0.3 percent. In January, production fell 0.3 percent. Capacity use rose to 82, above forecasts for a drop to 81.3 percent.

A separate report, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index, fell to 88.8 in March from 91.3 in late February. Economists thought it would fall to 89.0.

Treasury prices edged lower on the economic news, raising the yield on the the 10-year note to about 4.54 percent from 4.53 percent late Thursday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the yen and the euro.

U.S. light crude oil for April delivery rose 45 cents to $58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for April delivery jumped $7.10 to $654.20 an ounce.

That gave a boost to a number of metal and mining stocks, sending the Amex Gold Bugs (up $4.81 to $330.89, Charts) index up 2 percent and making the sector one of the morning's best performers.

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