NEW YORK, Sept 1 (AFP) - US stocks ended Wednesday on a lackluster note after an early rally fizzled on weaker-than-expected economic data, a rebound in crude prices and more negative analyst comments on tech stocks as investors awaited August employment figures due out Friday.
At the 2000 GMT closing bell, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 5.46 points or 0.05 percent to 10,168.46 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq picked up 12.31 points or 0.67 percent to 1,850.41.
The broader Standard and Poor's 500 gained 1.67 points or 0.15 percent to close at 1,105.91.
Some 1.14 billion shares changed hands on Wall Street and 1.42 billion on the Nasdaq.
On the bond barket, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note dropped to 4.123 percent from Tuesday's 4.132, and the 30-year bond stood at 4.934 percent against 4.938. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The flat stock close did not surprise traders, who had earlier cautioned against getting too optimistic.
Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at Spencer Clark, said he did not "anticipate equity markets staging a dramatic move higher," noting that several uncertainties remained this week, with Intel's quarterly update on Thursday and August jobs data on Friday.
Sheldon thought some investors were closing out short positions while others may be getting a jump start on what he said has typically been a seasonally stronger period for the market the day before and the day after Labor Day.
SW Bach strategist Joe Battaglia said he had no great expectations from the stock markets before Friday.
Oil prices jumped nearly two dollars on Wednesday to close at 44 dollars a barrel, after an announcement that US crude stocks had dropped for the fifth straight week raised supply worries.
Prices also rose on news of violence in Nigeria and a hurricane headed for Florida, analysts said.
New York reference light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 1.88 dollars, reaching its highest session price of 44.40 dollars.
The price of London's benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in October rose 1.49 dollars to 41.10 dollars per barrel in late deals.
The American manufacturing sector activity meanwhile declined in August after a 14-month run of growth.
The Institute for Supply Management purchasing managers' index (PMI), based on a survey of supply executives, dropped back to 59 percent in August against 62 percent in July, below analysts' forecasts of 60 percent.
First Albany strategist Hugh Johnson said the drop was not particularly worrying, saying it tended to fluctuate from one month to the next.
What was worrying, he said, was a rise in prices, which could pressure the Federal Reserve Bank to raise interest rates.
US automakers said Wednesday they had sold 1.43 million new cars and trucks in August, 12.4 percent fewer than a year ago, as the economy hit a soft patch and high oil prices sapped consumer confidence.
The double digit decline was not totally unexpected: Wall Street analysts had been calling for lower sales because of diminishing returns from incentives and hurricane-related sales losses in the state of Florida.
Analysts with General Motors Corp. and the Ford Motor Co., also pointed out that comparisons with August 2003 may be somewhat misleading, as that was the best sales month of 2003.