* White House extends $17.4 billion loan to automakers
* RIM, Oracle results lift Nasdaq
* Energy stocks drop as oil falls for sixth straight day
* Dow down 0.3 pct, but S&P up 0.3 pct, Nasdaq up 0.8 pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news, please click on
[]
(Adds new paragraph 6 with Dow's drop in last three days and
for December so far)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose
on Friday after the U.S. government said it would throw a
$17.4 billion lifeline to automakers grappling with falling
consumer demand.
But the Dow ended lower, pulled down by another fall in
energy shares, including Chevron <CVX.N> and Exxon Mobil
<XOM.N> as oil sank for the sixth day in a row on fears the
anemic economy will swamp demand.
"It's relief for the markets," said Tim Ghriskey, chief
investment officer of Solaris Asset Management in Bedford
Hills, New York, in reference to the auto sector's bailout.
"There was a feeling it was on the way. It is being dealt with
and not in a way that opens up the pocketbook and says, 'Take
what you need.'"
Initial optimism over the government's bridge loan to the
automakers, which sent stocks up as much as 2 percent, faded
as investors digested terms of the bailout that give them a
relatively short period of time to repair their problems.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> slipped 25.88
points, or 0.30 percent, to end at 8,579.11. But the Standard
& Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> rose 2.60 points, or 0.29 percent,
to 887.88. And the Nasdaq Composite Index <> added 11.95
points, or 0.77 percent, to close at 1,564.32.
Over the last three days, the Dow has fallen 3.9 percent.
For the month so far, the Dow is down 2.8 percent.
For the week, the Dow fell 0.7 percent, while the S&P 500
rose 0.8 percent and the Nasdaq gained 1.5 percent.
The Nasdaq was the best-performing index, after Oracle
Corp <ORCL.O> and Research in Motion <RIM.TO><RIMM.O helped,
after the companies reported better-than-expected earnings
late Thursday.
Friday marked the end of the convergence known as
quadruple witching, in which settlement and expiration of four
different types of futures and options contracts happen in a
two-day period. This can add to volatility, but on Friday,
that was not the case. The Chicago Board Options Exchange
Volatility Index, or VIX <.VIX>, which also is Wall Street's
favorite fear gauge, fell 5.09 percent to end at 44.93.
In the energy sector, Exxon Mobil slumped 2.6 percent to
$75.02, while Chevron fell 3 percent to $70.85. Oil fell to
$33.87 a barrel, its lowest settlement since Feb. 10, 2004.
Retailers' shares also weighed on the market, as the S&P
Retailers Index <.RLX> fell 1.1 percent while heavy snow and
inclement weather across large parts of the United States
threatened to damage sales during the last weekend of what is
expected to be a weak holiday shopping season.
A drop in retailers' stocks, including Target <TGT.N> and
JC Penney Co Inc <JCP.N>, helped curtail the S&P's earlier
gains.
Target's stock slid 2.8 percent to $34.42 and JC Penney
shares lost 4 percent to $19.92, both on the New York Stock
Exchange.
Shares of General Motors Corp <GM.N> surged nearly 23
percent to $4.49 after U.S. President George W. Bush said it
would be irresponsible to let the companies go bankrupt in a
time of economic crisis. For details see [].
Investors had fretted about the wide-reaching
ramifications of a potential failure of one of Detroit's big
automakers. The government loans would be called back if they
cannot restructure enough to ensure their survival.
Shares of rival Ford Motor Corp <F.N> tacked on 3.9
percent to $2.95 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Among the Nasdaq's major advancers, the U.S.-listed shares
of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion jumped 11.4 percent to
$42.83. In addition to posting better-than-expected
third-quarter results after the close on Thursday, the
Canadian company gave an optimistic outlook for its
fourth quarter. [].
Oracle's stock climbed 7 percent to $17.78 and ranked as
the No. 1 boost to the Nasdaq 100 <> a day after reporting
second-quarter earnings that were in line with estimates,
while posting a sales decline that was less than feared.
Volume was high on the New York Stock Exchange, with about
2.42 billion shares changing hands, well above last year's
estimated daily average of roughly 1.90 billion. On the
Nasdaq, about 2.74 billion shares traded, sharply exceeding
last year's daily average of 2.17 billion.
Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by
a ratio of about 5 to 3, while on the Nasdaq, the ratio was
about even.
(Additional reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Jan
Paschal)
