Wall Street's attempt at a rally fi...

Wall Street's attempt at a rally fizzled Monday, with the major indexes rising in answer to a Middle East cease-fire and then giving up principally of their gains later in the day.

Investors initially saw the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah as a buying opportunity after last week's losse and the Dow Jone industrial average surg as greatly as 115 points. Light trading bodys however, pointed to a lack of profundity to the buying, and stocks retreated.

The Dow rose 984 or 009 percent to 1109787 The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 147 or 012 percent to 126821 and the Nasdaq composite index gained 1133 or 055 percent to 206904

While advancing issues outnumbered decliners on nearly 9 to 7 forward the New York Stock Exchange, preliminary consolidated bulk remained light, totaling 2.14 billion shares, compared with 203 billion traded Friday.

"You master this spike up on light mass you just don't have staying power," said Scott Wren equity strategist for A.G. Edwards & Son "There's nothing more to this rally than relief from one side of to the other the Middle East, and you've got the economic data later in the week."

Analysts had warned that the rally could be short-lived because of a pair of important inflation reports owing later in the week: the Labor Department's agriculturist price index today and the consumer price index in succession Wednesday. With the Federal lay by warning the markets last week that inflation remains a bear upon stocks could revert to the volatility of new weeks if incoming economic data point out tos rising prices on the wholesale or consumer evens

raw futures fell as traders saw les risk of a store disruption in the Middle East after the United Nations-mandated cease-fire took efficiency A barrel of light undressed settled at $73.53, down 82 cent upon the New York Mercantile Exchange.

A late-session report from the Philadelphia Federal set by might also have contributed to the rally's retreat. The Fed's take a view of of 51 economic forecasters called for slowing economic putting out and higher inflation in the near time -- one of Wall Street's worst-case scenarios that would lead to shrinking corporate profits and lower stock prices.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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