Wall Street Fluctuates in Early Trading

Wall Street Fluctuates in Early Trading

By JOE BEL BRUNO – 53 minutes ago, YAHOO.25 Mac 2008.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street fluctuated in early trading Tuesday following big back-to-back rallies and as investors awaited readings on consumer sentiment.

The market seemed to be searching for direction in the early going. Some profit-taking was to be expected after a two-day rally sent the Dow Jones industrial average up nearly 450 points. Investors are looking for insights into whether the easing of some of Wall Street's fears in recent sessions is well-founded or overly optimistic.

Stocks have charged higher in the days following the Federal Reserve's decision to aid investment banks and orchestrate a buyout deal for a near-collapsed Bear Stearns Cos. The Fed's actions helped shore up confidence in the market and quieted a notion that losses among Wall Street companies would turn cataclysmic.

Investors also digested a report on the housing sector that showed a further pullback in home prices. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index shows U.S. home prices declined 11.4 percent in January from a year earlier.

A weak housing market is the root of much of the troubles Wall Street is now grappling with. So any sign the housing market is on the mend — or has at least seen the worst of its decline — would have been welcome news.

Also Tuesday, investors will be examining the Conference Board's survey on consumer confidence for March.

The Dow rose 5.62, or 0.04 percent, to 12,554.26 after falling in the opening minutes of the session.

Broader indexes also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 3.41, or 0.25 percent, to 1,353.29; and the Nasdaq rose 7.34, or 0.32 percent, to 2,334.09.

On the Net:

* New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com
* Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com