Market calmer after the storm

NEW YORK - Stocks closed mixed yesterday, with Wall Street exhausted from last week's swoon and still nervous about the effect of bank losses and energy costs on the economy.

A pullback in crude-oil prices provided limited relief to investors, who largely stuck to large-company stocks.

"It's hard for anyone to jump in whole hog after Friday," said Thomas J. Lee, equities analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Soaring energy prices, and a huge jump in the jobless rate, sent the Dow Jones industrial average plunging nearly 400 points Friday.

Crude prices dipped more than $4 to settle at $134.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday - after Friday's $11-a-barrel surge to a record.

The financial sector was particularly weak yesterday, after Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. posted an unexpectedly large quarterly loss of $2.8 billion - the investment bank's first since it spun off from American Express Co. in 1994.

The Dow rose 70.51, or 0.58 percent, to 12,280.32. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.08, or 0.08 percent, to 1,361.76, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 15.10, or 0.61 percent, to 2,459.46.

The cost of commodities, driven partly by the weakening dollar, has been raising worries about inflation. Dallas Federal Reserve president Richard Fisher and New York Fed president Timothy Geithner in speeches yesterday cited rising costs and the falling dollar as big concerns.

McDonald's Corp. and Alcoa Inc. were the two strongest blue-chip stocks yesterday.

McDonald's rose $2.36, or 4.14 percent, to $59.31, after the restaurant chain said global sales at locations open at least a year rose 7.7 percent in May.

Alcoa rose $2.95, or 7.52 percent, to $42.17, after the aluminum producer got a positive mention by Barron's.

Apple Inc. weighed on the technology-dominated Nasdaq, falling $4.03, or 2.17 percent, to $181.61, after unveiling an upgraded iPhone with a lower price.

And Lehman, which plans to raise $6 billion in new capital through a stock offering, saw its shares fall $2.81, or 8.70 percent, to $29.48. Other weak financial stocks were Washington Mutual Inc., which tumbled $1.28, or 17.00 percent, to $6.25, and Wachovia Corp., which dropped $1.24, or 6.16 percent, to $18.89.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. was the biggest decliner among the 30 Dow industrials, falling $2.58, or 6.44 percent, to $37.51.