Stocks Mixed in Half-Day Session

Stocks inched higher Friday in lackluster post-Thanksgiving trading, boosted by a furious rally in the steel sector amid signs of a supply shortage.

The Standard & Poor’s index of 12 U.S. steel producers jumped 6.2% after Japanese automaker Nissan Motor said it would stop production at some of its plants because of a shortage in the metal.

“The rally is being fueled by reports that both Nissan and Toyota are ardently looking to increase steel purchases,” Jeffrey Swensen, head trader at Batterymarch Financial Management in Boston, told Bloomberg News.

Nissan said Thursday that it would halt production for five days at three plants because it didn’t have enough steel, and it was asking its suppliers for more. Toyota Motor planned to step up purchases of steel from China and South Korea because of the shortage in Japan, according to a published report.

More broadly, U.S. stocks rose only modestly in Friday’s half-day session, as the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P; 500 wrapped up their fourth winning week in the last five.

The Dow climbed 1.92 points, or less than 0.1%, to 10,522.23, and the S&P; 500 added 0.89 point, or 0.1%, to 1,182.65. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index lost 0.57 point, or less than 0.1%, to 2,101.97 as semiconductor stocks sagged.

Market breadth was positive as winners outnumbered losers by 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange and by 4 to 3 on Nasdaq.

Two indexes of smaller stocks, the Russell 2,000 and the S&P; small-cap 600, edged up to their latest record highs.

Overall, “people are pretty positive on the economy and certainly about employment,” Victor Pugliese, head of trading at First Albany Corp. in New York, told Bloomberg News.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.6% and the S&P; 500 gained 1.1%. Nasdaq advanced 1.5%, notching its fifth winning week in six.

Although American companies rarely ship steel to Japan, the Nissan news suggested more Japanese steel would stay in Japan and less would come to the United States, helping U.S. producers, an industry analyst said.

Nucor, which makes steel from scrap, surged $2.90 to an all-time high of $54.05.

Elsewhere in the sector, U.S. Steel soared $3.30 to $51.25, Allegheny Technologies rallied $2.15 to $22.93 and Los Angeles-based Reliance Steel & Aluminum rose 84 cents to $40.76.

Other commodity stocks rallied as well, including aluminum maker Alcoa, which gained 89 cents to $34.64.

Precious metals shares added to their recent strength, with the Philadelphia gold and silver index rising 2.5%. Newmont Mining gained $1.12 to $48.99.

Among other highlights:

* The S&P; retailing index nudged up 0.2% as the holiday shopping season got underway with early reports generally positive. Saks gained 85 cents to $14.64, Gap rose 22 cents to $23.04 and J.C. Penney climbed 42 cents to $40.56.

Sears, which is being acquired by Kmart Holding, added $1.08 to $54.30. Kmart advanced $2.12 to $107.39.

* Semiconductor stocks fell after an industry report showed that worldwide chip sales increased only 1.5% in October. Intel lost 40 cents to $23.21.

* El Paso climbed $1.20 to $11.54 after the energy company’s shareholders voted overwhelmingly to keep its financial auditor despite earlier problems.