US stocks mixed in bumpy trade

NEW YORK: US stocks closed mixed on Monday after a day of bumpy trade, as eurozone turmoil kept a shadow over the markets.


A dim report on new US industrial orders in April helped erase
opening gains and sent stocks solidly in the red but buyers came back in
to wipe out the losses in afternoon trade.


The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day down 17.11 points (0.14 percent) at 12,101.46.


The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.14 points (0.01 percent) to
1,278.18, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 12.53 points (0.46 percent)
to 2,760.01.






Lack of a clear direction in Europe over how to rescue Spain's banks
kept a cloud over sentiment, as did the effect of last week's poor US
data on jobs and consumer spending.


"Investors are worried that European officials are not addressing
their escalating crisis fast enough, especially since several recent
elections indicate that voters are opposed to current austerity
policies," said Gary Thayer of Wells Fargo Advisors.


"The US stock market is going to remain beholden to headlines out of
Europe for a while," said Dick Green of Briefing.com. "There was no
hard news from politicians, although there are indications that Germany
may be softening its stance on European-wide solutions."


Home Depot led the Dow gainers with a 1.7 percent rise. JPMorgan
Chase led losers, down 2.9 percent, hurt in part by a report from the
liquidator of collapsed broker MF Global that suggested he might pursue
the bank for hundreds of millions of dollars that could belong to MF
Global clients.


The Nasdaq, which plunged 2.8 percent on Friday, got a boost from
Amazon, which gained 3.1 percent, and Starbucks, up 3.4 percent.


But BlackBerry maker Research in Motion fell 5.9 percent to a new
low of US$9.66, and Facebook lost 3.0 percent to close at US$26.90,
after have traded as low as US$26.44 - more than 30 percent below the
May 18 IPO price. -- AFP