Wall Street dips after banks add cash

NEW YORK – Wall Street gave up a moderate gain in late trading and closed marginally lower Monday after the Federal Reserve and other central banks added more cash to their banking systems, helping investors set aside some concerns about credit tightness.

The New York Fed, which carries out the central bank’s market operation, minutes after the opening bell announced $2 billion in overnight repurchase agreements.

The Fed’s “repo” follows a move by the Bank of Japan to put $5 billion into the markets and an addition by the European Central Bank of $65.3 billion; the ECB added more than $200 billion last week. The moves, following similar injections by the Fed last week, appeared to placate Wall Street for now and allowed it to look ahead to a week of fresh economic data. Since Thursday, the Fed has added $62 billion in liquidity.

Monday’s injection, however, was smaller than normal, perhaps reassuring some investors that the central bank doesn’t yet feel the need to pump more liquidity into the market. The last time the Fed repurchased as little as $2 billion in one day was April 18. It made a one-day repo of $1.5 billion on May 10, but that was preceded by a separate one-day repo of $5.0 billion earlier that same day.

The central bank moves seem to be calming a market that has been torn by volatility for weeks. But Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist for Schaeffer’s Investment Research, said trading Monday was very tepid. In fact, the Dow’s decline was a sign that investors remain nervous.

That the markets gave up their gains wasn’t surprising given how volatile trading has been.

“We got off to a good start in the morning, but people are still kind of on edge here and are unwilling to jump in and do a lot of buying,” he said. “There’s so much worry out there about the next shoe to drop.”

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.01, or 0.02 percent, to 13,236.53.

Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.72, or 0.05 percent, to 1,452.92, and the Nasdaq composite index retreated 2.65, or 0.10 percent, to 2,542.24.

After enduring sharp swings to the downside last week, the Dow and other major indexes ultimately finished the week with a modest gain. Last week’s trading showed that the most predictable thing about the markets lately is high volatility.

“The environment we’re in is really truly extraordinary. The best way for investors to view this is from a 30,000-foot view – to be positioned defensively and to continue to pay close attention to the U.S. economy and the consumer,” said J. Michael Barron, chief executive of Knott Capital in Exton, Pa.

Investors were in a somewhat better mood on Monday. However, Wall Street wasn’t comfortable enough to hold positions overnight, and ultimately sold off positions just before the closing bell.

There continues to be a great deal of uncertainty in the market over the extent of problems in the subprime mortgage sector. Defaults among subprime mortgage holders – borrowers with weak credit – began the chain of events that led to the turmoil on Wall Street and other stock markets in recent weeks.