Stocks End Mixed, With Blue Chips Up

Wall Street ended mixed Friday as it closed out its worst week since early August.

Blue chips edged higher despite a rise in oil prices to a record high. But semiconductor stocks led Nasdaq lower after two chip makers gave negative outlooks.

The Dow Jones industrial average inched up 8.34 points, or 0.1%, to 10,047.24.

Among broader indexes, the Standard & Poor’s 500 added 1.75 points, or 0.2%, to 1,110.11; the Nasdaq composite fell 6.95 points, or 0.4%, to 1,879.48.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 5 to 4 on the New York Stock Exchange, but losers had a thin lead on Nasdaq.

For the week, the Dow fell 2.3%, the S&P; was down 1.6% and Nasdaq lost 1.6%. It was the worst week for the market since the first week of August.

Rising oil prices have helped drive some investors out of stocks, analysts said. On Friday, near-term crude futures in New York pushed past the previous record of $48.70 a barrel on Aug. 19, gaining 42 cents to $48.88.

That news was partly offset by a sign of strength in manufacturing: The government said durable goods orders in August, excluding transportation equipment, were up 2.3% -- an indication that businesses and consumers may be ramping up their spending.

“Manufacturing seems to be going in the right direction, but the markets continue to yawn,� said Hans Olsen, chief investment officer at Bingham Legg Advisors. “And with oil, I think, with the potential to crack $50 per barrel, it doesn’t give us a lot of reasons to move substantially higher.�

Investors also have been unnerved by recent profit warnings from a wide range of companies -- including Morgan Stanley, Wendy’s International, General Mills and Colgate-Palmolive.

The technology sector Friday was hit by more gloom from the chip sector: Philips Electronics lost 26 cents to $22.95 after it warned that its semiconductor sales in the third quarter would be flat compared with the previous quarter. And Cirrus Logic fell 19 cents to $4.89 after lowering its sales forecast for the current quarter.

Among other chip firms, Texas Instruments lost 76 cents to $21.69 and Xilinx slumped $1.42 to $27.66.

Among the day’s highlights:

* Some industrial shares may have been helped by the durable-goods report. Machinery maker Bucyrus International jumped $1.19 to $31.69, and Illinois Tool Works added 69 cents to $91.32.

Pasadena-based Ameron, which makes industrial piping, gained $1.01 to $33.22 after sinking $4.55 on Thursday, when the company said operating profit in the recent quarter was slightly above year-earlier results.

* Energy stocks rose with crude prices. XTO Energy added $1.19 to $32.59 and Unocal was up 93 cents to $41.86.

* Shares of mortgage giant Fannie Mae sank for a fifth day, off $1.64 to $65.51. Federal regulators this week said they found pervasive problems in the company’s accounting. For the week, the shares tumbled 15%, hurting many value-oriented mutual funds that have long considered the stock a core holding.

* Gap slid 44 cents to $19.35. Wachovia Securities downgraded the retailer’s shares to “market perform� from “outperform,� citing growth concerns.

* The bond market was little changed. The 10-year Treasury note yield ended at 4.03%, up from 4.02% on Thursday.

* Mexico’s benchmark stock index hit a record high, up 0.4% to 10,856.44, even as the nation’s central bank raised interest rates to quell inflation.