US stocks: Blue chips fall in thin trade

NEW YORK - US blue-chip stocks closed lower in thin trade on Thursday after data gave a mixed picture of the US economy and steel shares fell as investors worried that slowing demand from China could depress prices.

Two Dow components -- the world's largest aluminum producer Alcoa Inc., and drug maker Pfizer Inc. -- dragged on the blue-chip average.

Alcoa fell 1.4 per cent to US$31.45 after Lehman Brothers cut its fourth-quarter and 2005 earnings estimates for the company, citing higher costs and a weaker dollar.

Pfizer slipped 1 per cent to US$27.01 following a report in The Wall Street Journal which said Celebrex prescriptions slid 56 per cent last week in the United States after a study linked the Pfizer drug to a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 28.89 points, or 0.27 per cent, at 10,800.30. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.10 of a point, or 0.01 per cent, to 1,213.55. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index finished up 1.34 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 2,178.34.

Light trading meant that "whatever (stocks) people do move are going to move the market more than they otherwise might," said Milton Ezrati, senior economic strategist at Lord Abbett & Co.

US steel companies Nucor Corp. and United States Steel Corp. were the worst performing stocks in the S&P 500 during the session on concerns that slowing Chinese demand could lead to oversupply and drive down steel prices.

Nucor plunged 6.4 per cent to US$51.38 and US Steel slumped 5.5 per cent to US$50.04.

Wall Street was quiet as investors wound down for the New Year. About 830 million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, far below the 1.4 billion daily average for last year. About 1.39 billion shares were traded on Nasdaq, below the 1.69 billion daily average last year.

Advancers outnumbered decliners on the Nasdaq by about 2-to-1, but on the NYSE advancing stocks were only slightly ahead of those declining.

The Dow is up 3.3 per cent for the year, with just one trading day to go, while the S&P 500 is up 9.1 per cent so far, and the Nasdaq Composite Index is up 8.7 per cent for the year to date.

Fannie Mae helped the S&P 500 stay just in positive territory as it rose 1.4 per cent to US$71.33 a day after the largest US buyer of home mortgages said it agreed to sell US$5 billion in preferred stock to institutional buyers.

Meanwhile, the number of Americans applying for first-time jobless aid fell by 5,000 last week to 326,000, the Labor Department said, in a sign the job market might be improving.

But the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said its index of Midwest manufacturing activity fell to 61.2 in December from 65.2 in November as the pace of hiring in that area slowed. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 63.0.

NYMEX February crude settled 19 cents lower at US$43.45 a barrel -- around US$10 higher than the beginning of the year, but nearly US$13 below the contract's all-time high of US$55.67 on Oct. 25. Higher oil prices hurt corporate profits and curb consumer spending, but a drop in crude usually helps most stocks.

- REUTERS