Stocks End Negative Day Narrowly Mixed

The Census Bureau said factory orders for July were up 1.3% in July, vs. a 2.1% increase in June. Analysts had been looking for an increase of 0.4%.

Ford (F Quote) said that its auto sales in the U.S. dropped 26.6% in August on flagging sales of large pickups and SUVs. The company also said it would reduce production for the second half of 2008. General Motors (GM Quote) reported a 20% year-over-year drop in August sales but improved sales by 31% from July.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were slightly higher in price. The 10-year was up 9/32 to yield 3.7%, and the 30-year was adding 20/32, yielding 4.32%. The dollar was gathering strength against the euro and pound, but falling vs. the yen.

Overseas exchanges were mainly trading lower. The FTSE in London, the Dax in Frankfurt and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong were showing weakness, while the Nikkei in Japan was up slightly.