* Apple fuels tech sell-off after bearish broker view
* U.S. jobless rate hits 25-year high
* General Motors falls 22 percent
* Report on Lloyds helps bring financials off their lows
* Dow up 0.5 pct, S&P up 0.1 pct, but Nasdaq off 0.4 pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click []
(Updates with details on stocks' decline for year so far,
adds volume figures)
By Leah Schnurr
NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks mostly rose on
Friday, with the Dow and S&P rebounding late in the day to end
higher as surging oil prices lifted energy stocks and offset a
sell-off in technology shares on bets that the slowing economy
will sap consumer spending on gadgets.
Wall Street spent much of the session in the red, but
financial shares came off their lows after the Wall Street
Journal reported that Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L> and the
U.K. government had agreed on an asset protection scheme,
easing concerns about frail capital positions at global
banks.
During the session, the Dow and S&P touched fresh 12-year
lows. But they erased those losses late in the session after
the Journal's report on Lloyds.
A 4 percent slide in Apple Inc <AAPL.O> shares helped keep
the Nasdaq under water, dragging it to a 6-year intraday low.
Exxon Mobil Corp <XOM.N> and Chevron <CVX.N> topped the
Dow as the price of oil rose 4.4 percent, or $1.91, to settle
at $45.52 a barrel on expectations that OPEC could again
reduce output. Chevron rose 3.2 percent to $58.27 and Exxon
gained 2.9 percent to $64.03.
The report on Lloyds "is more positive news that maybe
things are getting cleaned up. I think it's temporary, but
it's just incremental news to help the market," said Giri
Cherukuri, head trader at OakBrook Investments LLC, which
oversees $1.3 billion in Lisle, Illinois.
Cherukuri added that the report spurred bargain hunting.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> rose 32.50 points,
or 0.49 percent, to 6,626.94. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
<.SPX> inched up just 0.83 of a point, or 0.12 percent, to
683.38. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <> fell 5.74
points, or 0.44 percent, to 1,293.85.
WORST WEEK SINCE NOVEMBER FOR S&P
It was the fourth week of declines for all the indexes,
while the broad S&P 500 racked up its worst week since
November. For the week, the Dow lost 6.2 percent, the S&P 500
slid 7 percent, and the Nasdaq dropped 6.1 percent.
The week marked another leg down for the bear market with
both the Dow and S&P off more than 24 percent since the start
of the year. U.S. stocks have shed around $11 trillion in
value since hitting all-time highs in October 2007.
JPMorgan cut its price target and profit views on Apple,
citing signs that Mac and iPhone volumes have been below
expectations.
Apple's stock fell 4 percent to $85.30 on Nasdaq. For
details see [].
Even with the late-day bounce, banks hurt sentiment as
investors remained nervous about the fate of the sector at the
heart of the global economic crisis. The S&P financial index
<.GSPF> ended down 1.4 percent, off its lows, while JPMorgan
<JPM.N> was down 4 percent at $15.93 and Goldman Sachs <GS.N>
was off 7.4 percent at $75.65.
Bleak economic news added to the negative tone after a
government report showed the U.S. unemployment rate rose last
month to 8.1 percent, its highest since December 1983, as
651,000 jobs were cut. []
The gloomy jobs picture is disconcerting news for both
companies and consumers, whose spending drives corporate
profits. The S&P retailers index <.RLX> fell 1.8 percent with
discount retailer Wal-Mart <WMT.N> down 1.7 percent at
$48.91.
Shares of big-cap technology shares followed Apple's lead,
with cell-phone chip and technology supplier Qualcomm <QCOM.O>
down 2.9 percent at $33.63.
Automaker and Dow component General Motors <GM.N> dropped
22 percent to $1.45 a day after auditors raised doubts about
the company's viability. GM traded as low as $1.27 on the
NYSE.
On the upside, shares of Dow Chemical <DOW.N> jumped
nearly 10 percent to $7.11 and Rohm and Haas <ROH.N> climbed
18.1 percent to $63.80 after the companies confirmed
discussions are under way about their troubled merger. Dow
Chemical agreed last July to buy Rohm for $78 a share, but
then pulled out of the deal. []
In other M&A activity, Roche Holding AG <ROG.VX> raised
its offer to buy out the minority shareholders of Genentech
Inc <DNA.N> to $93 a share from $86.50, driving the U.S.
biotech company's stock up 11.3 percent to $90.86.
[]
Trading was active on the New York Stock Exchange, with
about 1.77 billion shares changing hands, above last year's
estimated daily average of 1.49 billion, while on Nasdaq,
about 2.50 billion shares traded, above last year's daily
average of 2.28 billion.
Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by
a ratio of about 9 to 5, while on the Nasdaq, decliners barely
outnumbered advancers, with 1,377 stocks falling and 1,318
rising.
(Additional reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; Editing by Jan
Paschal)
