Late Push Lifts Stocks

Wall Street was unable to settle on a direction for much of Wednesday's session, but an advance in the final minutes of trading led to a higher close.
By Sarina Penn ,

Updated from 4:20 p.m. EDT

Stocks in New York used a late surge to move higher at the close following a ragged trading session Wednesday.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

traded in a range of some 107 points, driving in and out of the green repeatedly before finishing up 46.68 points, or 0.36%, to 12,594.03. The

S&P 500

ended up 5.49 points, or 0.4%, at 1390.84, and the

Nasdaq Composite

rose 5.46 points, or 0.22%, to 2486.70.

"We really think we're going to be in a very narrow range out here," said Matt King, chief investment officer with Bell Investment Advisors. "There's not much news moving these markets."

"We're looking at a commodities-driven market right now," said James Park, managing director with Rodman & Renshaw. "It's funny how that's changed from a couple of months ago when it was all about the credit markets."

The Real Story Wrap: May 28

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Trading volume was light again, reaching just 1.93 billion shares on the

New York Stock Exchange

, where advancing issues outpaced decliners by nearly a 3-to-2 margin. Some 1.85 billion shares traded on the Nasdaq as winners just barely edged past losers.

As for commodities, crude oil made a stalwart recovery from an early slide, settling up $2.18 at $131.58 a barrel.

Gold futures, however, lost $7.40 at $900.50 an ounce. Also, the U.S. dollar added 0.4% against both the euro and the yen. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of its major counterparts, was up 0.2%.

Earlier, traders were greeted with a relatively positive report from the Commerce Department, which said that total orders of durable goods -- those designed to last three years or more -- fell just 0.5% sequentially last month. That's a bit worse than the prior month's 0.3% slip, but economists were expecting a 1.5% drop. Weighing heaviest was an 8% slide in transportation orders, without which total orders would have climbed 2.5%.

On the corporate front, the financial sector sagged for most of the day, but the

NYSE

Financial Sector Index pared its loss to a 0.2% drop. Insurance giant

AIG

(AIG) - Get Report

still ended with substantial losses, however, closing down 4.7% after Citigroup cut its price target on the firm. Other financial members of the Dow,

JPMorgan Chase

(JPM) - Get Report

,

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

and

Citigroup

(C) - Get Report

, pulled back from sizable intraday losses to end lower by less than 1% apiece.

Elsewhere, agricultural processor and ethanol maker

Archer Daniels Midland

(ADM) - Get Report

sank 5% after saying it will offer up to 35 million equity units for $50 each in an effort to raise $2 billion.

Separately, Dow component

Coca-Cola

(KO) - Get Report

reaffirmed its

current-quarter and full-year outlook

, though its largest bottler,

Coca-Cola Enterprises

(CCE)

, lost 5.2% after cutting its second-quarter guidance to a profit decline in the mid-to-high single digits. Coca-Cola shares were down 2%.

Dow Chemical

(DOW) - Get Report

announced that it has been forced to ramp up product prices by up to 20% as it's being bombarded by the soaring costs of energy, feedstock and transportation. The price hike will take effect on June 1. Shares ticked up 1.5%.

Back in the financial sector, a German business paper reported that Sweden's SEB and France-based BNP Paribas and Societe Generale might be interested in trying to acquire Citigroup's Citibank unit. The banks are also reportedly eying Deutsche Postbank and

Allianz's

(AZ)

Dresdner Bank. Allianz rose 1.2%.

Meanwhile, merger discussions between United Airlines operator

UAL

(UAUA)

and

US Airways

(LCC)

evidently have fallen apart, according to reports. Shares of UAL slumped 3.3%, and US Airways lost 8.1%.

UPS

(UPS) - Get Report

was among the winners, gaining 3.1% after saying it's pursuing an agreement to provide transportation in its air network for all of DHL's express, deferred and international package volume within the U.S. UPS also would provide airlift for DHL packages between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Also, a Detroit paper reported that carmaker

Ford

(F) - Get Report

plans to slash its salaried work force by up to 12% as the company suffers from harsh economic conditions. Shares of Ford finished down 2 cents to $6.78.

Treasury prices were plummeting. The 10-year note was down 25/32 in price to yield 4.02%, and the 30-year bond slid a full point in price, yielding 4.71%.

Markets abroad were mixed. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 sank 1.3% overnight, and the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.1%. Europe fared better however, as London's FTSE 100 rose 0.2% and Germany's Xetra Dax climbed 1.1%. The Paris Cac jumped 1.3%.

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