Nerves weigh on trading

US STOCKS retreated from early gains

Around 11.20am ET, the Dow Jones industrial average, up 33.19 to 8022.75, and the S&P 500 index, up 3.20 to 850.68, both struggled to hold on to earlier gains, while the Nasdaq composite up 1.31 to 1326.58, was little changed after having spent the early morning trading on both sides of break-even.

“There were technical breakdowns in several of the major averages yesterday, so we’re getting a small bounce now. But there’s reluctance to build on that ahead of what Bush might say,” said Bryan Piskorowski at Prudential Securities.

Buying was scant ahead of Mr Bush’s State of the Union address.

Wall Street has been losing ground for weeks and all three major market indicators are now in the red for the year, largely because of investors’ misgivings over a possible war with Iraq and the effects it would have on the global economy.