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player ready...Stocks closed mostly higher in moderate trading Tuesday, although major stock indexes retreated from a healthy rally early in the session to close slightly lower.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 10.99 points, at 12,337.22. Earlier, the Dow was up 157 points, led by rallies in oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron, a new member of the 30-stock Dow industrials.
Tuesday was the first day of the newly constructed Dow average, with Chevron and Bank of America replacing Altria Group and Honeywell International. The two rejects closed higher. Bank of America fell.
A late-day retreat in technology stocks, such as Google, Apple and Research in Motion, helped drag market indexes lower.
But after the close of regular trading, tech stocks received a boost from better-than-expected quarterly results by computer gear-maker Hewlett-Packard.
Earnings per share and revenue in HP’s fiscal first quarter exceeded the average analyst forecast, as did the company’s forecast for the current quarter. Shares of the Dow component jumped nearly 5 percent in after-hours trading, to $46.10.
New York Stock Exchange trading volume reached 1.42 billion shares, down from 1.50 billion shares last Friday. Winning stocks outnumbered losers by a 9-7 ratio. Nasdaq trading volume totaled 1.94 billion shares, down from 2.01 billion Friday, as losers held a slight lead over winners.
Treasury auctions: Interest rates eased at the weekly auctions of 3- and 6-month Treasury bills. The discount rate for 3-month bills was 2.20 percent, down from 2.25 percent last week. The rate for 6-month bills was 2.04 percent, down from 2.08 percent last week.
The coupon-equivalent investment rates at Tuesday’s auctions were 2.25 percent for 3-month bills and 2.10 percent for 6-month bills.