NEW YORK - Stocks finished a bumpy session mostly higher Friday as investors, while still somewhat cautious about the economy, were encouraged by the government's pledge to lend as much as $17.4 billion to U.S. automakers.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished down about 26 points, but the broader Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes posted moderate advances, finishing higher for the second week in a row. Rising stocks outpaced those that fell by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Though the session was choppy -- the Dow was up as many as 182 points in early trading, then moved in and out of negative territory for much of the afternoon -- it was a relatively calm day on Wall Street compared with the wild swings experienced in September, October and early November.
In the early going, investors cheered the government's pledge to provide General Motors Corp. and Chrysler with $13.4 billion in short-term financing, and an additional $4 billion at a later date.
The Dow fell 25.88, or 0.30 percent, to 8,579.11. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.60, or 0.29 percent, to 887.88, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 11.95, or 0.77 percent, to 1,564.32.
For the week, the Dow ended down 0.59 percent, while the S&P 500 finished up 0.93 percent and the Nasdaq ended up 1.53 percent. All the indexes are still down more than 35 percent for the year.
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