IBM revenue reports help drag down Dow

NEW YORK -- Wall Street finished mixed Thursday, weighed down by disappointing revenue at IBM and solid but not exceptional earnings at other companies. Still, the Nasdaq composite and Standard & Poor's 500 index posted new 52-week highs.

Analysts said investors who had sent stocks to 16-month highs in recent days on expectations of a strong earnings season needed more incentives to make big stock purchases.

"On balance, the earnings have been what Wall Street expected. That's good, but not enough to get the market moving," said Matt Brown, head of equity management at Wilmington Trust. "To get the market up, you need to see a lot of companies beat expectations. Maybe that will happen in the next quarter."

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 11.33, or 0.1 percent, at 9,791.72, having slipped 9.93 in the previous session.

SOUTH SOUND

Three new docks being added at Swantown

The Port of Olympia has started installing three 8-foot-wide docks that will add 157 boat slips to Swantown Marina.

Bellingham Marine is assembling the docks. The $3.3 million project is due to be finished by the end of the year. About 80 of the boat slips have been pre-leased.

ECONOMY

Consumer prices up for second month

WASHINGTON -- Consumer prices rose by a modest 0.3 percent in September for the second month in a row, mostly reflecting higher gasoline prices that put a dent in motorists' wallets. At the same time, production at the nation's factories, mines and utilities rebounded.

Separately, the Federal Reserve reported that industrial production rose a solid 0.4 percent in September, a turnaround from the disappointing 0.1 percent dip registered in the previous month. At factories, output jumped 0.7 percent in September led by an increase in automobile production; production at mines was flat; and output at utilities dropped 2.2 percent.

NYSE

Top firms to be cited for trading practices

NEW YORK -- The New York Stock Exchange will discipline and seek tens of millions in fines against five floor-trading firms as part of a widening probe into improper trading that may have cost investors millions.

The firms involved are LaBranche & Co.; Spear, Leeds & Kellogg; Fleet Specialist; Van der Moolen Specialist; and Bear Wagner Specialists.

The world's largest stock exchange said Thursday it will seek to compensate investors after the NYSE investigation, which found the specialist firms ignored their primary duty to directly match buy and sell orders when possible and, instead, intervened from their own account for a profit.

TELECOM

1/2 est losses get $2.5 billion update

DENVER -- 1/2 est Communications International Inc. on Thursday filed its long-awaited restated earnings for 2000 and 2001, saying it lost $2.54 billion more than initially reported in those years.

The changes reflect corrections to the improper manner in which the telephone company recorded sales of capacity on its telecommunications network, as well as equipment sales, phone book publishing and purchase accounting methods.