Wall Street report: Friday close

A HICCUP in consumer confidence caused heartburn on Wall Street as blue-chips fell short in their quest to extend a winning streak to a third day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, up 330 points in the past two days, surrendered 40.08 points or 0.45% to 8778.06. The Nasdaq climbed 16.00 points or 1.19% to 1361.01, its highest level in a month, on an optimistic outlook from personal computer maker Dell. On the week, the Dow dipped 0.5%, while the Nasdaq gained 1.2%.

The University of Michigan prompted a more cautious tone when it said that a preliminary reading on consumer confidence this month came in at 87.9, a nine-month low and its third straight decline. Economists had expected a reading of 89.

'There was a shock to consumer sentiment because of the stock market woes, and now it's being weighed upon by some very public lay-off notices,' said Stan Shipley, an economist at Merrill Lynch. 'That's going to keep consumer sentiment soft. People are worried about their jobs.'

The lower consumer confidence also may have played into other data released by the Commerce Department. New housing starts fell slightly in July in their second straight monthly decline. Consumer inflation figures were tame, in line with expectations.

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, eased 92 cents or 1.7% to $53.79 after a strong week. Do-it-yourself chain Home Depot shed 83 cents or 2.9% to $28.10. Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble retreated 48 cents or 0.5% to $90.84 after an analyst said that its period of market out-performance may have run its course.

'Smokestack' companies were among the weakest sectors. General Electric lost 74 cents or 2.3% to $31.55, International Paper dipped $1.69 or 4.2% to $37.59 and aluminium giant Alcoa came off 66 cents or 2.6% to $24.77.

Media shares were mostly higher on upbeat comments from Viacom, which owns the CBS and MTV networks. The sector trended higher during the week partly on comments from News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch that the advertising market appeared to be picking up.

Walt Disney added 71 cents or 4.7% to $15.86. AOL Time Warner jumped 70 cents or 6% to $12.56. News Corp., strong earlier in the week, was down fractionally at $22.75.

Techs were helped by Dell Computer, which delivered its usual upbeat assessment in its quarterly report out after the close of trading on Thursday, was ahead 39 cents or 1.4% to $27.53. Cable TV company Charter Communications, controlled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, tumbled 18 cents or 6.6% to $2.53 after it disclosed that the US Government had requested documents on its accounting.