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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, October 17, 2003

Session's mixed results show little consistency

By Hope Yen
Associated Press

NEW YORK — Wall Street finished mixed yesterday, weighed down by disappointing revenue at IBM and by solid but not exceptional earnings at other companies. Still, the Nasdaq composite and Standard & Poor's 500 index posted new 52-week highs.

Analysts said investors who had sent stocks to 16-month highs in recent days on expectations of a strong earnings season needed more incentives to make big stock purchases.

In addition, analysts caution that the market remains vulnerable to pullbacks as some investors wonder if stocks might be overvalued.

Market sentiment is "sloppy," said David Phillips, an equity analyst at Eastover Capital. "I can't find a consistency in it."

The Dow industrials slipped 0.1 percent. The Nasdaq composite index, up 0.6 percent,, had its highest finish since Jan. 17, 2002.

Shares of International Business Machines Corp., a Dow industrials component, dropped $3.46 to $89.28 after the company reported profits that met analysts' forecasts; however, its revenue fell short of estimates.

Ford Motor Co. shares rose 20 cents to $12.34 after the automaker reported a narrower loss than expected, citing good results from its financial services arm.

Coca-Cola Co. fell 10 cents to $45 after reporting earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations.

A pair of economic readings had little effect on trading:

• The Commerce Department reported that consumer prices rose by 0.3 percent in September. The reading was slightly stronger than the 0.2 percent increase analysts were expecting.

• The department also reported that new jobless claims fell last week by a seasonally adjusted 4,000 to 384,000. It represented a decline for the second week in a row and was the lowest level since early February; the reading also beat analysts' forecasts.

Advancing issues led decliners 8 to 5 on the Big Board. Consolidated volume came to 1.79 billion shares, compared with 1.95 billion Wednesday.

The Russell 2000 index rose 2.29, or 0.4 percent, to 529.64.