Wall Street's early advances hit by world fears

Wall Street backed away from a solid rally following four losing days due to concerns about world events.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up a slight 13.56 at 9,925.25. The Nasdaq composite index fell 16.27 to 1,615.65.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 2.47 to 1,067.13, while the Russell 2000 index slipped 0.37 to 487.46.

Blue chips advanced as much as 130.36 at one point according to preliminary calculations before falling back.

Analysts weren't surprised by the pullback, with investors worried about the possibility of terror attacks and the conflict between India and Pakistan.

"It's end-of-the week jitters. There are enough things to worry about in the world that could go wrong," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co.

The market was encouraged by positive economic news - healthy business activity in the Chicago area, a jump in US worker productivity, and an increase in consumer sentiment - but caution crept back into trading as the session wore on.

"The economy is doing well, but the stock market is trying to hammer out the bottom. It's not a new bull market yet. It's not off to the races," said Scott Bleier, president of Hybridinvestors.com.

"There is a lot of news to come. The market is going to be very volatile to economic data for a while," said Barry Berman, head trader for Robert Baird & Co in Milwaukee.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners five to three on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was light at 1.23 billion shares, up marginally from 1.22 billion on Thursday.