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A 'buy' rating on Lehman Brothers gives a lift to financials
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NEW YORK - Wall Street finished mixed Thursday after investors largely shrugged off a jump in oil prices and focused instead on a bullish call on Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. that eased worries about the financial sector.
Stocks closed off their lows of the session after a Ladenburg Thalmann analyst raised his rating on Lehman to "buy," saying he believes the nation's fourth-biggest investment bank is a hostile takeover candidate. That call helped ease concerns about that company as well as the financial sector.
The partial recovery in financials as well as gains by energy producers helped contain investors' anxiety over a jump in oil of more than $5 a barrel. Prices rose as investors questioned whether tensions with Russia would disrupt energy shipments from the world's second-largest oil producer. Often, an uptick in oil will fan Wall Street's fears of inflation.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 12.78, or 0.11 percent, to 11,430.21.
Broader indicators ended mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.18, or 0.25 percent, to 1,277.72, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 8.70, or 0.36 percent, to 2,380.38.
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