Stocks wobble as financials weigh on sentiment

NEW YORK — Wall Street has ended a wobbly session with mixed results as concerns about the financial sector eroded enthusiasm over a decline in oil prices and a report that signaled modest growth in the service economy.

The latest worries about financial companies flared after Moody's Investors Service warned it might downgrade its ratings on bond insurers Ambac Assurance Corp. and MBIA Insurance Corp. That followed two days of sharp declines fueled by fears regarding more bank write-downs and concerns about Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. liquidity.

Buoyed earlier by a decline in oil prices and a positive report on the service sector from the Institute for Supply Management, stocks moved from positive to negative throughout the session. Some investors looking to sidestep the troubled financial sector moved into technology stocks, giving the Nasdaq composite index the only advance for the major indexes.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 12.37, or 0.10 percent, to 12,390.48.

Broader indexes were mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.45, or 0.03 percent, to 1,377.20, while the Nasdaq rose 22.66, or 0.91 percent, to 2,503.14.

Bond prices fell as stocks advanced. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.92 percent from 3.89 percent late Tuesday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Hugh Whelan, managing director at Hartford Investment Management Co., said Wall Street will likely remain moored to its current levels until there is a sustained pullback in oil and until a more robust corporate profit picture emerges.

"I think broadly speaking we'll probably trade at a range over the next few months," he said. "From a valuation perspective the market is right where it should be given current profit levels."

He said some investors are gravitating toward technology stocks thinking that profits at such companies are likely to hold up better in a weak economy and that tech could be an early winner should the economy begin to show signs of picking up.

"It's just a sector that is not plagued by some of the worries that are foremost on people's mind," he said, pointing to concerns about credit quality that are dogging the financial sector and unease over the effect of rising energy prices on companies dependent on consumer spending.