Stocks finished on where to start Friday as investors are positive signs that are balanced to the U.S. economy with a deadline looming for the deficit-cutting congressional committee. The sharp slowdown earlier this week has left the market with the worst weekly loss since September.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 25.43 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 11,796.16. The Dow traded in a relatively narrow range, an increase of 84 points and dropped to 15. Hewlett-Packard Co. jumped 2.6 percent, most of the 30 stocks in the index, while updating analyst.
Conference Board index of leading economic indicators rose more than Wall Street analysts expected, a sign that the economy can take in the coming months. But many investors were cautious as a congressional committee deadlocked on basic ways to reduce the budget deficit of the United States.
A bipartisan group must agree to make at least $ 1.2 trillion of deficit reduction on the part of Thanksgiving. If the committee fails and the Congress took no other action, the automatic spending cuts would take effect in 2013. Economists fear that the stalemate in Congress will erode business confidence and slowing down the already fragile economy.
Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.48 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,215.65.
Telecommunications and technology stocks fell broadly. The Nasdaq composite fell 15.49, or 0.6 percent, to 2,572.50. Salesforce.com plunged 10 percent after the quarterly results came in below estimates.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 2.9 percent during the week. Broader indexes fell even more. S & P 500 fell 3.8 percent, the Nasdaq 4 percent. The market fell sharply on Wednesday and Thursday on fears that the European debt crisis could spread and damage the U.S. banks.
Encouraging economic reports this week _ including a decrease in job applications of the United Nations and the increase of industrial production _ has done little to help the European market because of the crisis will be easily dragged the U.S. economy, said Kim Forrest Caughey, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group.
"Our economy can improve, but the establishment of what will happen to the banking system in case of default in Europe," he said. He said that investors are reluctant to take large positions, because nobody knows how the problem will be resolved Europe, or future profits of U.S. companies' will be affected.
In company news:
HJ Heinz Co. _ fell 3.3 percent after gains sauce maker down almost 6 percent.
_ Gap Inc. fell 2.5 percent after earnings came in slightly below Wall Street estimates. The company said that the cost of materials continues to eat into profit margins.
_ Clearwire Corp. fell 21 percent after a report quoted the Director General, as saying that the wireless broadband network operators can not make a big debt payment due in two weeks.
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