(Adds Clear Channel shares sliding late, volume)
By Ellis Mnyandu
NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose
on Tuesday as rebounding metal and oil prices lifted mining
and energy shares, offsetting news of the biggest drop in
consumer confidence in five years.
The Dow ended slightly lower, held back by a 3.5 percent
drop in Bank of America Corp <BAC.N> after a brokerage advised
investors to sell the stock, citing the No. 2 U.S. bank's
exposure to the bursting housing bubble.
Stocks weakened early after a Conference Board report
showed consumer confidence fell sharply in March, raising the
specter of Americans tightening their purse strings. For
details see [].
The data also hurt the dollar, which in turn fueled a
rebound in commodity prices after last week's sell-off. That
benefited companies such as aluminum producer Alcoa Inc
<AA.N>, up 2 percent, and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc
<FCX.N> which jumped 4.1 percent.
Standouts included shares of independent oil and gas
producer Devon Energy <DVN.N>, up 3.8 percent, and oil
services company Schlumberger Ltd <SLB.N>, which jumped 1.7
percent. Both stocks were among the Dow's biggest gainers.
"The catalyst for commodities is the weaker dollar and
it's allowing other groups to rally," said Steve Goldman,
market strategist at Weeden & Co., based in Greenwich,
Connecticut. "Global growth, at least from a commodities
standpoint, will probably stay intact."
The Dow Jones industrial average <> slipped 16.04
points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 12,532.60. But the
Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> inched up 3.11 points, or
0.23 percent, to 1,352.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index <>
rose 14.30 points, or 0.61 percent, to close at 2,341.05.
As the market had rallied on Monday to book its strongest
2-day advance in nearly four months, some investors opted to
take profits, particularly in the financials, which had
rallied on news of a revised buyout offer for beleaguered Wall
Street investment bank Bear Stearns Cos <BSC.N> from JPMorgan
Chase & Co <JPM.N>.
Shares of Bank of America dropped to $40.97 on the New
York Stock Exchange, where shares of JPMorgan, the No. 3 U.S.
bank by assets, slid to $46.06. Both stocks were among the top
drags on the Dow and the S&P 500.
ALCOA AND QUALCOMM CLIMB
But shares of Alcoa led the Dow's advancers, finishing up
2 percent, or 70 cents, at $35.74, followed by shares of
chemical maker DuPont <DD.N> , which gained 1.4 percent, or 64
cents, to $47.30.
Shares of Caterpillar Inc <CAT.N>, the maker of bulldozers
and excavating equipment, which is an exporter that benefits
from a declining dollar, rose almost 1 percent to finish at
$76.64 on the NYSE. Its customers include miners.
Monsanto Co <MON.N> was another bright spot on the
commodities front after the U.S. agricultural biotechnology
company raised its profit forecasts. Its shares jumped 9.9
percent to $114.54 on the NYSE.
"Outside of financial companies, earnings remain pretty
strong," said Cleveland Rueckert, market analyst with Birinyi
Associates Inc in Stamford, Connecticut.
Investors also snapped up technology shares following
positive broker comments on the sector's bellwether stocks,
including Qualcomm Inc <QCOM.O>.
The wireless chipmaker's stock, which gained 2.3 percent
to close at $40.80 on the Nasdaq, was raised to a "buy" from
"neutral" at Merrill Lynch, according to theflyonthewall.com,
a financial Web site.
Shares of Yahoo Inc <YHOO.O> jumped 4.4 percent to close
at $28.73 on Nasdaq after Citigroup said it is likely that
Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> will raise its takeover offer for the
Internet media firm. Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In
Motion Ltd <RIMM.O> ended at $115.95, up 3.7 percent.
STATIC FOR CLEAR CHANNEL
In after-hours trade, shares of Clear Channel
Communications Inc <CCU.N> slid 19.4 percent to $26.25 on news
that talks concerning the $20 billion leveraged buyout of the
U.S. radio and TV station operator had hit a snag. The stock
ended the regular session at $32.56, down 5.6 percent on the
NYSE. []
Trading was extremely light on the New York Stock
Exchange, with about 1.48 billion shares changing hands, well
below last year's estimated daily average of roughly 1.90
billion, while on Nasdaq, about 2.12 billion shares traded,
slightly below last year's daily average of 2.17 billion.
Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by
a ratio of 2 to 1 on both the NYSE and the Nasdaq.
(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; Editing by Jan Paschal)
