Stocks fall in end to a rocky month

Stocks closed mostly lower Friday, a peaceful end to the most volatile month in nearly two years.?Mixed economic news Friday added to investor uncertainty after big gains in stocks.

By Bernard Condon,?AP Business Writer / June 28, 2013

Specialists David Haubner and Wingszi Cihang work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Friday. Stocks fell after a three-day rally.

Richard Drew/AP

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After flitting between tiny gains and losses most of Friday, the U.S.?stock?market closed mostly lower, a peaceful end to the most volatile month in nearly two years.

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"It's a dull Friday," said Gary Flam, a?stock?manager at Bel Air Investment Advisors. A bull market, he added, is "rarely a straight march up."

The Standard & Poor's 500 index ended its bumpy ride in June down 1.5 percent, the first monthly loss since October. The index still had its best first half of a year since 1998.

Investors seemed unsure how to react to recent statements by Federal Reserve officials about when the central bank might end its support for the economy. Mixed economic news Friday added to investor uncertainty after bigstock?gains.?

On Friday, an index consumer confidence was up but a gauge of business activity in the Chicago area plunged.

"Investors don't know what to make of the news," said John Toohey, vice president of?stock?investments at USAA Investment Management. "I wouldn't be surprised to see more ups and downs."

The S&P 500?stock?index closed down 6.92 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,606.28. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 114.89 points, or 0.8 percent, to 14,909.60. The Nasdaq composite index rose 1.38 points, or 0.04 percent, to 3,403.25.

Stocks?have jumped around in June. By contrast, the first five months of the year were mostly calm, marked by small but steady gains as investors bought on news of higher home prices, record corporate earnings and an improving jobs market.

By May 21, the S&P 500 had climbed to a record 1,669, up 18 percent for the year. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke the next day, and prices began gyrating.

Investors have long known that the central bank would eventually pull back from its bond purchases, which are designed to lower interest rates and get people to borrow and spend more. Last week, Bernanke got more specific about the timing. He said the Fed could start purchasing fewer bonds later this year, and stop buying them completely by the middle of next year, if the economy continued to strengthen.

Investors dumped?stocks, but then had second thoughts this week as other Fed officials stressed that the central bank wouldn't pull back on its support soon. The Dow gained 365 points over the previous three days this week. The Dow has had 16 triple-digit moves for the month, the most since September 2011.

Bonds have also been on a bumpy ride in recent weeks, mostly down.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/r-s0LIF-Uaw/Stocks-fall-in-end-to-a-rocky-month

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