Stocks Mostly Higher as Dow Climbs Toward 10,000

Stocks were mostly higher while bonds advanced on a friendly wholesale inflation report.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

was up 34 to 9932. Dow component

Caterpillar

(CAT) - Get Report

warned it expects first-quarter earnings to come in 50% below the

First Call

15-analyst consensus estimate of 84 cents a share. The stock was down 3 9/16, or 7%, to 47 5/16.

The overall

Producer Price Index

fell 0.4% in February, while the core PPI, excluding food and energy, was unchanged.

The 30-year Treasury bond was up 7/32 to 95 21/32, yielding 5.55%, in the wake of the PPI report.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters that

OPEC

and non-OPEC oil producers agreed to cut more than 2 million barrels a day from the market,

Reuters

reported. The news boosted oil and oil service stocks.

The

S&P 500

was up 5 to 1303.

The

Nasdaq Composite Index

was down 13 to 2399. The

Russell 2000

was up fractionally at 402.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

was down 7 to 577.

TheStreet.com E-Commerce Index

was down 1 to 108.

Most Up at Open -- NYSE

Clear Channel Communications (CCU) - Get Report, up 1 7/8 to 67 5/8

.

Most Up at Open -- Nasdaq

DoubleClick (DCLK) , up 14 9/16 to 121

: The company yesterday announced a 2-for-1 stock split.

Most Down at Open -- NYSE

DaimlerChrysler (DCX) , down 2 1/8 to 92 5/16

.

Most Down at Open -- Nasdaq

CMGI (CMGI) , down 13 1/8 to 169

: The company reported second-quarter earnings of 28 cents a share, including gains, vs. a loss of 15 cents a year ago. Separately, yesterday,

The Boston Globe

reported that CMGI could announce an alternative merger deal for Lycos "within several days." On Tuesday, CMGI CEO David Wetherell resigned from Lycos' board in protest over the terms of Lycos' merger deal with

USA Networks

(USAI) - Get Report

.