Wall Street was mixed on Thursday at mid-session as commodity prices began to rise once again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 10.81 points below Wednesday’s record high close to 11,839,80, while the S&P 500 was just 0.17 of a point lower to 1,350.05. On the other hand, the Nasdaq Composite had added 0.2 percent to 2,296.14 by midday.
There were gains in the oil and mining sectors on the rising commodity prices. ConocoPhillips added 1.9 percent to $57.87, while oil services company Noble was 3.2 percent higher as OPEC considered cutting production. As industrial metals prices gained ground, Freeport McMoran advanced 4.1 percent to $51.04 and Phelps Dodge gained 4.2 percent to $81.94.
The steel sector was also up, on the news that Tata Steel of India is thinking about bidding for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus. Nucor added 5 percent to $51.20, while US Steel gained 5.7 percent to $59.16.
In the hotel sector, Starwood Hotels gained 3.3 percent to $59.90, mostly on the strength of Marriott International’s 4 percent gain to $39.88 on its announcement that although its third-quarter profits were down by 5 percent, they were still higher than analysts had predicted.
Things were not as positive in the retail sector. Wal-Mart was 2.2 percent lower to $48.46, while supermarket chain Safeway dropped 3.3 percent to $28.60 and department store Dillard’s dropped 10 percent to $30.26 on flat same-store sales last month.