NEW YORK Wall Street gets a boost in burst of buying by bargain hunters

NEW YORK (AP) -- A burst of late-day buying lifted Wall Street modestly higher Friday despite a lackluster retail sales report and disappointing sales of new software licenses by Oracle Corp. Still, the gains weren't enough as the market ended a four-week winning streak.
Analysts said investors decided to take advantage of some bargains after the Dow Jones industrials lost as much as 78.81 earlier in the day.
"Generally speaking, people are optimistic, but we're now at valuations that are appropriate as long as the economic and profit picture continue to improve as they have been," said Susan L. Malley, chief investment officer for Malley Associates Capital Management in New York.
"As we move into the earnings preannouncement season, people are standing pat in case there are any bad surprises," she said.
The Dow finished up 11.79, or 0.1 percent, to 9,471.55, having gained 39 points the previous session.
Also higher
Broader indicators also turned higher. The Nasdaq composite index rose 8.95, or 0.5 percent, to 1,855.04. The Standard & amp; Poor's 500 index rose 2.21, or 0.2 percent, to 1,018.63.
For the week, Dow fell 0.3 percent, the Nasdaq declined 0.2 percent and the S & amp;P lost 0.3 percent. The Nasdaq and S & amp;P ended a four-week winning streak, while the Dow fell after five weeks of gains.
Stocks were sluggish for most of the session but edged higher late in the day. A report Friday morning on retail sales for August came in below analysts' expectations, contributing to pessimism about the economy's prospects for a turnaround.
But traders had other good news about the economy to focus on. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that economists polled in a monthly survey predicted the economy will have grown in the second half of the year at the fastest rate in four years.
Choppy stocks
Stocks have been choppy over the past week as investors commemorated the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and wondered whether the market's six-month rally might have come too fast, too soon. Analysts say the earnings warning season, which begins in earnest next week, will likely give investors guidance on the strength of the economic recovery.