WALL Street stocks ended mixed today, with the blue chip indexes rallying in the final hour to close barely lower on the day. Broad market indexes gained.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrial stocks ended down 1.09 points after dropping nearly 30 points earlier in the day to close at 5,584.97.

The stock and bond markets responded to a Federal Reserve report that industrial production shot up 1.2 per cent in February, the biggest advance in more than eight years.

Meanwhile the Labour Department said consumer prices edged up a moderate 0.2 per cent in February, the smallest since an identical advance in December. Taken together, the data was considered negative for both markets.