Wall Street fights for gains

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks struggled higher Monday afternoon as investors showed relief that central banks around the world are addressing credit crunch worries, but remained wary of committing too much amid lingering concerns about the economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 22.36 to 13,261.90, Charts) climbed about 0.2 percent with under 30 minutes left in the session. The broader S&P 500 (up 4.62 to 1,458.26, Charts) index added 0.2 percent and the tech-fueled Nasdaq Composite (up 4.59 to 2,549.48, Charts) index posted small gains.

Quick Vote

What action have you taken in response to the recent market volatility?

• Sold stocks
• Bought stocks
• Bought bonds
• Put money in the bank
• Stood pat

or View results

Stocks have been whipsawed the last few months on fears about tightening credit after a period of widespread liquidity. At the same time, investors have been absorbing the impact of the slumping housing market, including the collapse of the subprime mortgage market - loans made to consumers with less than ideal credit.

Last Thursday concerns about these developments mushroomed, sending stocks tumbling - and the Dow industrials to their second worst point loss of the year.

Friday started off on a bad note too, but investors managed to recover most of the day's losses by the close. That recovery continued through most of Monday as investors geared up for economic news due later in the week, including readings on producer prices and the trade balance on Tuesday..

Monday's choppy trading also reflected that it's late summer on Wall Street and the news flow is slower than usual.

"We're going to see this kind of volatility for the next few weeks," said Dan Genter, president and CEO at RNC Genter Capital Management. "We're basically through the earnings period, we're in a no-news period and it's compounded by the fact that a lot of people are still on vacation."

Genter said the market will show more consistency starting after Labor Day.

On the upside, at least the "raw fear" of last week seems to have dissipated, thanks to the infusions of money from central banks around the world, said John Wilson, chief technical strategist at Morgan Keegan. "It's kind of like the relief you feel when someone has been hitting you in the head and then they stop."

The European Central Bank (ECB) added another $65 billion to the monetary system, building on last week's series of cash infusions. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) also added $5 billion, building on last week's moves.

Plus, just as the market opened, the Federal Reserve injected an additional $2 billion in reserves to the nation's banking system after pumping $38 billion in Friday.

Also helping with sentiment: news out of Goldman Sachs (down $1.50 to $179.00, Charts, Fortune 500) that one of its troubled hedge funds is getting a $3 billion cash infusion from a team of investors.

And July retail sales beat expectations. Sales rose 0.3 percent in the month, above forecasts for a rise of 0.2 percent. Sales excluding autos rose 0.4 percent, meeting expectations. A separate report showed June business inventories rose 0.4 percent, as expected.

Despite a strong start to the session, the market turned mixed as the day wore on, with weakness in gold, silver, homebuilders, banks and airlines tempering strength in technology, telecom, retail and automakers.

In addition, a variety of small cap stocks declined, dragging down the Russell 2000 small-cap index. by nearly 1 percent.

Among other movers, Blackstone Group (up $0.87 to $26.15, Charts) jumped after the private equity firm reported that it more than tripled its quarterly profit and revenue in the second quarter.

Qualcomm (up $1.20 to $39.09, Charts, Fortune 500) shares rose 2.5 percent after the wireless chipmaker's general counsel resigned amid ongoing legal battles with Broadcom (down $0.63 to $35.22, Charts) and other rivals.

Additionally, a number of stocks that got battered at the end of last week bounced back, including Dow components Alcoa (up $0.81 to $35.50, Charts, Fortune 500), Boeing (up $1.74 to $100.18, Charts, Fortune 500) and General Motors (up $0.62 to $34.47, Charts, Fortune 500).

Hewlett-Packard (up $1.33 to $48.54, Charts, Fortune 500), Dell (up $0.36 to $26.81, Charts, Fortune 500), Apple (up $3.42 to $128.42, Charts, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (up $0.74 to $24.68, Charts, Fortune 500) were among the tech stocks bouncing back.

Market breadth was mixed. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers nine to seven on volume of 1.15 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers by a narrow margin on volume of 1.53 billion shares.

Treasury prices crept higher, lowering the benchmark 10-year note yield to 4.77 percent from 4.80 percent late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

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

U.S. light crude oil for September delivery rose 58 cents to $72.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, giving up bigger morning gains.