Wall Street suffers third straight weekly decline

Investors took some chances on blue chip stocks, picking up bargains after the Dow Jones industrials 900 point drop over the past two weeks.

But the buying wasn't enough to save Wall Street from its third straight weekly decline.

Analysts attributed the day's gains to investors seeking lower-priced stocks rather than improving sentiment about the market or the economy.

The blue chip advance came despite investors' ongoing concerns that a war with Iraq would derail what's already been feeble economic progress.

The Dow closed up 108.68, or 1.4%, at 8,053.81, according to preliminary calculations. Over the week the Dow lost 1%.

The broader market was mixed with technology issues slipping on signs of further weakness in the chip sector.

The Nasdaq composite index slipped 1.44, or 0.1%, to 1,320.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 11.09, or 1.3%, to 855.70. For the week, the Nasdaq fell 1.6% and the S&P lost 0.7%.

Likewise, it was a bad month for Wall Street. For January, the Dow fell 3.5%, the Nasdaq declined 1.1% and the S&P lost 2.7%.

Companies produced mixed news. Honeywell rose 94 cents to 24.44 after meeting fourth-quarter earnings expectations and forecasting 2003 profit in line with analysts' expectations.

Disney advanced 1.15 to 17.50 on fiscal first-quarter profits that were 2 cents a share higher than Wall Street's estimate.

But the tech sector was pulled lower by chip equipment maker Applied Materials, which said first-quarter orders would decline by 35%, rather than the 20% previously projected. Applied Materials fell 98 cents to 11.97.