AlQa'dah 27, 1433, Oct 13, 2012, SPA - U.S. stocks closed mixed Friday, as investors became cautious ahead of key corporate reports due next week. In U.S. news, the University of Michigan/Reuters consumer sentiment index for October rose to 83.1, the highest level in five years. Analysts had expected it to come in at 78.5. The Labor Department reported that producer prices increased 1.1 percent in September, which was higher than anticipated. According to government officials, much of that was due to spikes in food and energy prices. But excluding those increases, the prices of finished goods remained unchanged from the previous month. In international news, Chinese officials guided the yuan higher versus the dollar, reacting to weeks of criticism from U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Japanese technology giant SoftBank fell sharply on news that it was in talks to buy Sprint for more than $12 billion. In company news, Bank stocks were under pressure after Wells Fargo reported that sales fell short of expectations in the third quarter, even as profits were in line with forecasts. JPMorgan shares eased after the bank reported record quarterly profits. Investors were also focused on shares of companies in the semiconductor space after AMD cut its revenue forecast for the third quarter. The dollar fell against the euro, the pound, and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for November delivery lost 21 cents to $91.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures dropped $10.90 to $1,759.70 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.46, or 0.02 percent, to 13,328.85. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.25, or 0.30 percent, to 1,428.59. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 5.30, or 0.17 percent, to 3,044.11.
