Weak profits rule Wall Street

Concerns about weak company profits ruled Wall Street again yesterday, foiling the market's attempts to rally on comments from Oracle.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 48.71, or 0.5%, at 10,596.67, while the Nasdaq rose 4.03, or 0.2%, to 1,992.66.

The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 4.15, or 0.3%, to 1,212.58, and the Russell 2000 index fell 1.80 to 488.73.

The declines followed an early session rally on Oracle's news that its US outlook might be improving.

Analysts said those gains did not last because they reflected the automatic snapback that usually occurs after strong selling, rather than any shift in market sentiment.

Technology stocks have been battered in recent weeks by earnings warnings from companies including Nokia and Sun Microsystems.

Oracle rose $1.92 to $16.76, a 13% increase, on slightly better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results.

But the broader sector was choppier. Big losers of the session included Ciena, down $2.12 to $36.74, and Dow component Hewlett-Packard, off 71 cents at $26.

The Dow was also hurt by losses in Honeywell and General Electric, after a GE executive said there was zero chance its $41 billion acquisition of Honeywell will proceed because of stiff opposition from European regulators. Honeywell fell $1.50 to $38.50, while GE lost 13 cents to $48.87.

Advancing issues traded nearly evenly with decliners on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume came to 1.17 billion shares, compared with the nearly 1.10 billion shares on Monday.