Stocks Close Mixed in To-and-Fro Day

Updated from 3:28 p.m. EDT

Stocks in New York closed mixed Friday after the government reported far fewer job losses than expected in May but also the highest unemployment rate since 1983. But the major indices all recorded a positive week if not a positive day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 12.89 points, or 0.2%, at 8763.13, while the S&P 500 lost 2.37 points, or 0.3%, to 940.09. The Nasdaq edged down just 0.6, or 0.03%, to 1849.42 for the day.

The Dow flirted with positive territory for the year throughout the day, occasionally surpassing its Dec. 30 close of 8,776.39, ultimately falling short.

Boeing(BA Quote), Hewlett-Packard(HP Quote), were the strongest performers on the index for the day, rising 4.1% and 3.5%, respectively. DuPont(DD Quote) was the worst, losing 6% after a downgrade by Bank of America(BAC Quote).

Financials were lower, with the KBW Bank Index losing 2.1%: UBS(UBS Quote) fell 6.7%, US Bancorp(USB Quote) lost 4%, and Citigroup(C Quote) and CIT Group (CIT Quote) fell about 3% each.

Despite the relatively week performance for the day, the week was strong: the Dow rose 3.1%, the S&P 500 added 2.3%, and the Nasdaq moved up 4.2%.

It's what Doug Roberts, founder and chief investment strategist of the Channel Capital Research Institute, calls "performance anxiety" that is driving the buying on the pullbacks as the pressure mounts to participate in the far longer than anticipated rally.

"There's still a lot of money on the sidelines; an awful lot of investment professionals that have not believed in the rally and have been waiting for a pullback have to position themselves between now and the end of the quarter," says Rich Hughes, co-president of Portfolio Management Consultants. "It's been an upward slope the entire quarter, and for them to post numbers which indicate they didn't participate will be painful."

As of Friday's close, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdsaq were up 15.2%, 18.1%, 21%, respectively, for the second quarter.