Market Wrap

Here is a succinct write-up on the day:

• A choppy day of trading ended well on Wall Street as the market overcame continued weakness in bank stocks.
• McDonalds led gains among the Dow Industrials. Shares were up 1.69 at 59.67 after the company’s chief executive said he “fully expects” McDonalds will keep paying dividends.
• Intel gained 42 cents to 13.74 after predicting profits might improve after the first quarter.
• Best Buy rose 2.20 to 29.34 as competitor Circuit City announced it will liquidate its business.
• Early enthusiasm for financial stocks evaporated quickly. Bank of America fell 1.14 to 7.18 even though it received a $138 billion federal lifeline. The bank warned that it might post bigger losses in the quarters ahead. Citigroup announced plans to split in two, and shares dropped 33 cents to 3.50.
• The Dow closed up 68 at 8281.
• NYSE volume totaled over 1.6 billion shares. The S&P 500 closed up 6 points. The Nasdaq gained 17.
• Advancing issues beat decliners by 2-1 on the NYSE and by 6-5 on the Nasdaq.
• The 10-year Treasury note was down a full point to yield 2.32%.
• For the week, the Dow lost 318 points, or 3.1%. The S&P 500 fell 40 points, or 4.5%. The Nasdaq was down 42 points, or 2.7%.