Technology stocks led Wall Street lower today after an uninspiring employment report failed to ease investors’ concerns over Intel’s profit outlook. The major indexes finished the week mixed.

HARRAH’S Entertainment Inc is buying Caesars Entertainment Inc for about $5.2 billion in cash and stock in a deal that would create the largest gambling company in the world.

Investors’ growing dread of higher interest rates sent stocks sliding sharply in the United States today, with a solid retail sales report and expectations of higher inflation providing the latest catalyst for a sell-off.

Optimistic investors bid US stocks sharply higher in light trading today, buoyed by the strength of the economy and even ignoring a slight rise in oil prices. The Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 140 points.