Stocks, major indexes end week on mixed note

Oil prices went higher on news of an attempt to destroy a plant in Buqayq.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks finished an uneven session mixed Friday as investors grappled with the implications of a terror attack against a Saudi Arabian oil processing plant and a surprising decrease in factory orders. The major indexes also ended the week mixed.
Before the market opened, news reports said two explosives-laden cars attempted to destroy a plant in Buqayq. Although officials said the flow of oil was not halted, the news sent oil prices higher, with a barrel of light crude settling at $62.91, up $2.37, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The bombing news came as investors weighed a sharp drop in big-ticket factory orders. The Commerce Department said durable goods orders fell 10.2 percent in January, the biggest drop in 51/2 years and far greater than the 0.2 percent decrease economists expected.
With energy prices rising and the economy slowing, investors' fears of greater inflation, and the Federal Reserve's rate hikes to combat it, have pressured stocks all week. Yet despite the news, analysts were pleased that the markets managed any gains.
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