WALL STREET Dow advances 6th week in row

Both the Nasdaq and Standard & amp; Poor's 500 indexes rose.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stronger-than-expected consumer sentiment gave Wall Street a lift Friday, sending the Dow Jones industrials to its sixth straight weekly advance as investors clung to hopes of a strengthening economic recovery.
Investors fretted over terrorism fears and brokerage downgrades of General Electric and Intel for much of the day before deciding a spate of mixed economic news wasn't so bad after all, analysts said.
"I think the numbers coming out this morning helped to calm people fearing two things: deflation ... and falling consumer sentiment," said Todd Clark, head of listed equity trading at Wells Fargo Securities.
The Dow rose 36.96, or 0.4 percent, to close at 8,579.09. Earlier in the day, blue chips dropped as much as 81 points.
The broader market finished mixed. The Nasdaq composite index fell 0.38, or 0.03 percent, to 1,411.14. The Standard & amp; Poor's 500 index gained 5.56, or 0.6 percent, to 909.83.
For the week, the Dow gained 0.5 percent to post its sixth straight weekly advance. The Nasdaq climbed 3.8 percent and the S & amp;P 500 rose 1.7 percent after snapping a four-week winning streak last week.
GE fell 64 cents to $23.86 after J.P. Morgan Securities cut the company's stock to underweight and trimmed their 2003 estimates, citing credibility of the forecasts.
Intel dropped 41 cents to $18.80 after Merrill Lynch downgraded the technology company's stock to sell from neutral.
A series of mixed economic news befuddled investors for much of the day, creating choppy trading.
Labor reports
The Labor Department reported Friday that wholesale prices shot up 1.1 percent in October, the biggest leap in nearly two years. The reading far exceeded analysts' forecasts of a modest 0.2 percent rise, allaying some concerns of deflation.
Separately, production at the nation's factories, mines and utilities fell by 0.8 percent in October, after a 0.2 percent decline the month before, the Federal Reserve reported. It was the worst showing since September 2001, when industrial production plummeted by 1.1 percent.
But the University of Michigan said its gauge of consumer sentiment for November rose to 85 from 80.6 in October, ending a five-month decline, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
"The market is wrestling with the conflicting economic reports," said Charles G. Crane, strategist for Victory SBSF Capital Management. "We had industrial production weaker than expected, which would feed the fire of those who suggest the economy is in a softer spot than the consensus is suggesting."
"Adding to the confusion level is the notion that the consumer confidence figures were pretty good. So you have a lot of cross-chop in the numbers today," he said.
Investors, meanwhile, got more bad news on terrorism, when the FBI warned that Al-Qaida may be planning a "spectacular" terrorist attack intended to inflict large-scale damage. The White House said Americans should remain vigilant, although it left the alert status unchanged.
Analysts say investors have been wary about making big commitments to stocks due to concerns about a war with Iraq or terrorism here, leading to volatility in recent days.
But investors have remained generally upbeat since October's big rally and are looking for reasons to buy, allowing stocks to rally Thursday on better-than-expected retail news.
"The market as a whole has to balance between current earnings softness and the prospects for better earnings ahead," Crane said.
"Mixed in with that you have valuations that are high by historical standards, but quite reasonable on prospective terms compared to prevailing interest rates."
"So you have a real tug of war out there that causes the markets to be volatile on any given day or week," he said.