Wall Street mixed on economic worries

Wall Street finished mixed in fickle trading today, with investors still unsettled about the US economy ahead of Friday’s employment report and only somewhat relieved about sliding commodities prices.

The Commerce Department gave the market just modest comfort when it said orders for manufactured products rose by 1.3 percent in July. The figure was higher than the 0.8 percent predicted by economists polled by Thomson Financial/IFR; the department also upwardly revised its June reading to an increase of 2.1 percent.