Stocks in Holding Pattern With All Eyes on Fed

Hands wring over Fed and consumers
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 14, 2007 4:01 PM CDT
Stocks in Holding Pattern With All Eyes on Fed
Trader Eric Schumacher works the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the morning hours of Friday, Sept. 14, 2007. Stocks pared their losses after opening lower Friday following a government report that August retail sales excluding autos fell sharply. (AP Photo/David Karp)   (Associated Press)

Stocks marked time today, settling into an eerie calm before next week’s nail-biter Fed decision on interest rates. Investors mulled conflicting consumer data: The University of Michigan/Reuters consumer-sentiment survey announced a rise to 83.8, but August retail growth was less than expected. The confusion amounted to modest gains for the Dow, up 0.13%, and miniscule boosts for the Nasdaq and S&P, each up less than 0.3%.

Even small gains represented a rally after an early sell-off sparked by UK mortgage lender Northern Rock’s dip into the Bank of England for emergency funding. That put the Dow in an 80-point hole, before it rose to 13442.52, up 17.64, to cap a winning week of 2.5% growth. The S&P gained 0.30 to 1484.25, and the Nasdaq 1.12 to 2602.18. (More stocks stories.)

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