NEW YORK - US stocks traded mixed Monday as Wall Street investors remained concerned that the economy could slide into recession and as private equity firm The Blackstone Group reported a fourth quarter loss.
Blackstone, which launched an initial public offering (IPO) last June, said it sustained a quarterly loss partly due to a slump in property related investments.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 19.22 points (0.16 percent) at 11,912.91 at 1449 GMT after sustaining heavy losses on Friday which saw the Dow finish at a 17-month low.
The tech-stacked Nasdaq composite dropped 1.52 points (0.07 percent) to 2,210.97 and the Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index declined a slight 0.02 points (0.00 percent) to 1,293.39. Both indexes had also closed lower last week.
"Wall Street is clearly nervous. More bad news on spreading problems in the credit markets combined with growing evidence of a slowing economy has sent market bulls back into their fox holes," said Frederic Dickson, chief market strategist at DA Davidson & Co.
Investors were battered by reports last week that underlined a slowdown in US economic momentum, especially on Friday when a government report revealed that US employers had cut 63,000 jobs in February.
The jobs report added to fears that the economy could be falling into a recession amid a lengthy housing market slump and as a credit squeeze continues to plague the banking sector.
Traders said they would be keeping a wary eye on crude oil prices, which soared to record peaks last week over 106 dollars a barrel, as well as the ailing dollar which has tumbled in value on foreign exchange markets.
The euro was trading around 1.5377 dollars in morning deals.
Economists say high oil prices and the weak dollar are fueling inflationary pressures which could make it harder for the Federal Reserve to continue its aggressive interest rate-cutting campaign amid slowing growth.
Stocks declined as The Blackstone Group reported a quarterly loss of 170 million dollars compared with earnings of 1.18 billion dollars during the same period a year earlier.
Blackstone's stock was down 3.3 percent from Friday at 14.10 dollars. Its shares have tumbled heavily since its IPO last June when the private equity firm's shares jumped to 38.00 as investors snapped up its stock before a credit crunch whipsawed US markets in August.
Oil giant Chevron Corp meanwhile said it plans to develop a second multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Western Australia.
The project centers on Chevron's wholly owned Wheatstone natural gas discovery, off the coast of Karratha.
Chevron's shares were down 0.2 percent at 85.08 dollars.
Bond prices increased as some investors sought a safe haven from equities. Yields on the 10-year US Treasury bond dropped to 3.505 percent from 3.541 percent Friday and that on the 30-year bond fell to 4.508 percent against 4.541 percent.
Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
bur-jjc/rl
03/10/2008 14:57 GMT