Wall Street ends mixed

Wall Street closed mixed Tuesday, as oil perking up boosted energy stocks and investors digested better-than-expected new home sales and consumer confidence.
Light, sweet crude rose 1.16 U.S. dollars to 116.27 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange amid concerns Hurricane Gustav might hit oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico. Energy stocks rallied 1.3 percent.
Moreover, the U.S. Conference Board reported that its consumer confidence index rose to 56.9 from 51.9 in July, better than a reading of 53 that analysts had expected. It is the second month in a row that the index improved.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that new home sales rose 2.4 percent in July, also better than one percent drop economists had forecast.
A rally in energy stocks and better-than-expected economic data offset concerns that the Federal Reserve may raise the interest rates, after the central bank released minutes of the meeting on Aug. 5, showing policy makers generally agreed that their next move will be to tightening.
The Dow Jones rose 26.62, or 0.23 percent, to 11,412.87. Broader indexes traded mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose4.67, or 0.37 percent, to 1,271.51; and the Nasdaq fell 3.62, or 0.15 percent, to 2,361.97.