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US markets rise as European indices mixed

27 August 2009 08:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. The stock market is running out of reasons to go higher.
After rocking between gains and losses Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrials managed to rise for a seventh straight day, marking another high for the year.
But there was hardly any excitement. The Dow rose just 4 points, while other major indexes gained less than 1 point despite positive reports on home sales and factory orders.
An increasingly cautious mood has gripped the market in recent days, following a period of fervid buying this spring and summer that sent stocks up more than 45 percent since early March. While economic data is showing modest improvement, investors are worried stocks may have overshot the economy’s recovery.
The Dow rose 4.23, or 0.04 percent, to 9,543.52. Over the past seven days, the Dow has risen 408 points, or 4.5 percent. The last time the Dow posted such a long winning streak was on July 21, when its seven-day gain came to 770 points, or 9.4 percent.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.12, or 0.01 percent, to 1,028.12, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 0.20, or 0.01 percent, to 2,024.43.
Declining stocks narrowly outnumbered advancers on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to a light 5.10 billion shares, down from 5.74 billion shares on Tuesday.
In other trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.80, or 0.1 percent, to 584.02.
Oil prices fell further Wednesday after the government reported an increase in crude supplies. Light, sweet crude fell 62 cents to $71.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Government bond prices were little changed despite favorable demand at an auction of $39 billion in five-year notes. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note held steady at 3.44 percent.
The dollar mostly rose against other major currencies. Gold prices were flat.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.4 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.5 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 0.6 percent, and France’s CAC-40 lost 0.3 percent. Source: AP