Dow off 29 in profit-taking after last week's big gains

From wire reports

July 22, 2008

NEW YORK - Wall Street turned in a mixed performance yesterday as investors watched the price of oil regain ground and decided to cash in some of their gains from the stock market's big rally last week.

The tame session unfolded as oil rose on concerns that the threat of new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program may escalate tensions in the Middle East. Light sweet crude futures rose $2.16 to settle at $131.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The rise in oil offset initial market enthusiasm after Bank of America Corp. posted results that beat expectations, raising hope the credit crisis might be easing for the nation's biggest retail banks. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 29.23 points to 11,467.34 after moving in and out of positive territory.

Broader indexes showed more modest declines. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.68 to 1,260.00 and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 3.25 to 2,279.53.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 4.55 to 697.63.

The Sun-Bloomberg index of the top stocks in Maryland rose 0.55 to 286.53. Foundation Coal Holdings Inc. added $3.87 to $69.87, while Provident Bankshares Corp. gained $1.26 to $9.17.

Advancers outpaced decliners by about 2-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange, on volume of 1.2 billion shares.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research, said the market is still feeling somewhat upbeat about how earnings are shaping up so far this quarter. And that's helped to maintain some of last week's advances by Wall Street despite the moderate pullback yesterday.

Overseas, markets in Japan were closed for a holiday. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.52 percent, Germany's DAX index added 0.66 percent and France's CAC-40 rose 0.65 percent.

The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this article.

Stock of Interest

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.

Shares finished the day up 14 cents at $2.42. An FCC commissioner signaled that he hopes the haggling over a proposed merger with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. will be resolved within a week.