NEW YORK — Stocks ended Wednesday mixed, a day after the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 12,000 for the first time since June 2008.
The Dow traded in a tight range throughout the day as investors weighed the impact of unrest in Egypt against better- than-expected news on the job market.
“The market seems to be catching its breath after that strong run Tuesday,” said Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist for RidgeWorth Investments.
Traders’ television screens were filled with scenes of fighting in Egypt between groups that support President Hosni Mubarak and those who are calling for his ouster. Mubarak vowed Tuesday that he will not run for president in September but did not say he would take any steps to leave office before then.
Egypt is not a major producer of oil but controls the Suez Canal, a key shipping lane in the global oil business. Oil prices fluctuated throughout the day as traders balanced the clashes in Egypt with a report that fuel supplies were growing in the U.S. Oil settled 9 cents higher at $90.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Dow rose 1.81 points to end the day at 12,041.97 — its highest close since June 19, 2008.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 3.56 points, 0.3 percent, to 1,304.03. Nine of its 10 company groups fell. Financial companies had the largest fall of any group, dropping 0.9 percent.
The Nasdaq composite lost 1.63 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 2,749.56.
The market’s ability to hold its ground after Tuesday’s strong gains — the Dow’s biggest one-day gain in two months — reflected continued optimism and inflows into the domestic equity market, investors said. But it also raised questions about how sustainable the recent gains have been.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sort of a pullback sooner than what people are predicting,” said Dorsey Farr, a partner at Atlanta investment advisers French Wolf & Farr. “It doesn’t look like northern Africa is going to be that trigger, though it may be too early to say that. But when markets are higher, they’re more susceptible to some far-off event.”
Early Wednesday, payroll processor ADP said that private companies added more jobs in January than analysts predicted. That’s a hopeful sign for the Labor Department’s monthly employment report, due out Friday. Economists expect the government to say the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in January from 9.4 percent the previous month.
