By Heather Landy
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, December 20, 2008

Stocks turned in a mixed performance yesterday, with the Dow Jones industrial average finishing lower and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock and Nasdaq composite indexes ending higher.

Citigroup fell 5.5 percent, or 41 cents, to close at $7.02 after the bank and 10 other U.S. and European financial institutions had their credit ratings cut by S&P. Concern about the impact of plummeting oil prices pushed down shares of Exxon Mobil by 2.6 percent and Chevron by 3 percent. The declines helped to knock 0.3 percent, or 25.88 points, off the blue-chip Dow, which closed at 8579.11.

The broader S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent, or 2.6 points, to close at 887.88, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.8 percent, or 11.95 points, to 1564.32.

Stocks got off to a strong start yesterday after President Bush announced $17.4 billion in emergency loans to the auto industry, saying he wanted to avoid a "disorderly" collapse that could cause further harm to the economy.

General Motors, which along with privately held Chrysler is to receive the federal loans, surged almost 23 percent, or 83 cents, to $4.49. Ford, which had said it didn't need government assistance but warned that a bankruptcy by any of the big three automakers would be detrimental for the industry, rose nearly 4 percent, or 11 cents, to $2.95.

"The auto plan is very good news," said Timothy Speiss, head of the wealth management division at accounting and financial advisory firm Eisner LLP. "There had been much weighing on that, with a lot of investors nervous and wondering if there was a bankruptcy, what that would do to unemployment and what the effect on the broader economy would be."

Shares of Oracle jumped more than 7 percent, or $1.17, to $17.78 after the software maker posted quarterly earnings late yesterday that met analysts' forecasts.

One of the biggest gainers in the Nasdaq was Baltimore-based Provident Bankshares, which agreed to a takeover by M&T Bank in a stock deal valued at $401 million. Provident shares soared 60.9 percent, or $3.53, to $9.33.

It was a different story elsewhere in the bank sector, after S&P stirred up fresh concerns about the impact of the slowing economy and expectations for continued volatility in the funding markets that big banks rely on.

Bank of America shares fell 1.2 percent, or 16 cents, to $13.80. J.P. Morgan Chase closed up 0.4 percent, or 11 cents, to $30.32, after falling at the start of the session.