Stocks seesawed Friday after weaker-than-expected reports on durable goods orders and new home sales touched off worries about the strength of a recovery in the economy.
Investors were disappointed to hear that durable goods orders unexpectedly fell in August. The second drop in three months shows any rebound in manufacturing is likely to be slow.
The Commerce Department said orders for goods expected to last at least three years fell 2.4 percent, after increasing 4.8 percent in July. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, forecast a 0.5 percent increase.
The drop was due primarily to a sharp fall in demand for commercial aircraft, a highly volatile portion of the orders report. Even excluding aircraft and other transportation goods, orders were flat in August. Economists had been predicting a rise 0.5 percent in that number as well.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said sales inched up to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 429,000 last month from a downwardly revised 426,000 in July. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a pace of 440,000.
Disappointing quarterly results from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. are weighing on the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index.
Traders are also watching a meeting of leaders from the world’s 20 largest economies in Pittsburgh for indications of how those governments plan to bring about a strong, sustainable recovery.
In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.30, or 0.1 percent, to 9,720.74.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.28, or 0.1 percent, to 1,052.06, and the Nasdaq fell 2.98, or 0.1 percent, to 2,104.63.
Advancing stocks narrowly outnumbered those that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 222.3 million shares compared with 251.3 million shares traded at the same point Thursday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.41, or 0.1 percent, to 602.16.
Meanwhile, bond prices traded in a tight range. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, was flat at 3.38 percent from late Thursday.
The dollar mostly fell against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 2.6 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 0.1 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.3 percent.
责任编辑：mman
