Us stocks flat in light trading

Stocks finished essentially flat in New York today in very light post-Thanksgiving trading, as the market struggled to find direction in an absence of economic news.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 2.89, or 0.03%, at 9,782.46. That followed Wednesday’s gain of 15.63 points.

Broader stock indicators were narrowly mixed at the end of today’s abbreviated trading session.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 6.95, or 0.4%, to 1,960.26, after gaining 12.33 points in the previous session. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index finished the day down 0.25 points, or 0.1%, to 1,058.20, following a gain of 1.83 points on Wednesday.

The drift in stocks reflected a day with almost no market-shaping news. The only exceptions were President George Bush’s surprise trip to Iraq and the dollar’s drop to a new low against the euro, continuing a recent trend. The dollar was also lower against most other key currencies.

The news on the dollar would normally be expected to push stocks lower, and it exerted some downward pressure today.

But the day after Thanksgiving is nearly always one that sees the market edge higher, with so many people taking the day off that there is usually little selling momentum, said Todd Clark, head of listed equity trading at Wells Fargo Securities in San Francisco.

“We’re basically seeing (the weak dollar) get shrugged off in favour of more of the seasonality factor here,” Clark said.

The rise in stocks followed four consecutive sessions of gains on Wall Street, capped by modest increases on Wednesday, the last trading day before the holiday. With most traders and investors taking the day off, the stock market closed at 1pm.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson fell 41 cents to 49.29, following the company’s announcement on Thursday that it had suspended trials of an anaemia drug, Procrit, because some patients had developed blood clotting.

On the day regarded as the kickoff to the holiday shopping season, shares of Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, fell 6 cents to 55.24.

Pharmaceutical maker Schering-Plough saw its shares rise 69 cents to 16.07 after the company said its chairman and CEO, Fred Hassan, had bought 4.7 million of its stock.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by an 8-to-5 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 282.13 million shares, down from 517.18 million shares at the same point Wednesday.

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks smaller company stocks, was up 1.20, or 0.2%, to 546.51.