Wall Street Clings to Green

After dipping into the red earlier, Wall Street posted minor gains Friday afternoon amid strength from consumer discretionary stocks in the wake of consumer sentiment hitting a six-month high. Today's Markets As of 1:30 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17.25 points, or 0.15%, to 11387.54, the Standard & Poor's 500 gained 5.03 points, 0.41%, to 1238.09 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 15.92 points, or 0.61%, to 2632.58. The FOX 50 picked up 2.89 points, or 0.33%, to 886.45. The gains were hesitant, however, as Wall Street remains cautious amid continued worries about the expiring Bush tax cuts and a stronger U.S. dollar. “There's nothing that suggests we are anywhere closer to passage of the tax deal in the House. That's keeping the buyers a little bit shy,” said Nick Kalivas, vice president of financial research at MF Global. Most of the Dow's 30 stocks lost ground, led by Bank of America BAC and Cisco Systems CSCO. The best performers on the index were Procter & Gamble PG and United Technologies UTX. Continue reading the article.