Blue Chips Mixed Amid Inflation Fears
NEW YORK, Oct. 3ÛÓBlue-chip stocks started the fourth quarter on a mixed note today as investors worried about the implications of new data showing inflation was still a threat.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average closed 3.70 points higher at 3846.89. In the broader market, declining issues outnumbered advancing stocks by 13 to 8 on New York Stock Exchange volume of more than 269 million shares.</br></br>A report by the National Association of Purchasing Management, a private trade group, showed momentum in the nation's manufacturing sector. The association said its September business activity index rose to 58.2 from 56.2 in August and its prices component jumped to 77.1, the highest level since August 1988.</br></br>Analysts said the report lent weight to arguments that the Federal Reserve will have to raise interest rates again to ward off inflation.</br></br>"TodayÛªs data obliterated any sense that the Fed is done in the short term," said Jay Ferguson, analyst at Ferguson, Andrews & Associates.