Interest Rate Fears Keep Investors NervousInterest Rate Fears Keep Investors Nervous

The economic news was mixed Thursday and so were stock markets after a turbulent session. Investors bracing themselves for widely expected interest-rate increases drove blue-chip stocks down while the Nasdaq was flat.

Investors saw the 0.7% April increase in the producer prices index, a key gauge of inflation, as evidence that the Federal Reserve is likely to increase interest rates at its meeting next month--perhaps by more than the expected quarter-point. The markets weren't comforted by the bigger-than-expected 0.5% drop in retail sales in April reported by the Commerce Department, although that figure did show a weakening of consumer demand, and an increase in new jobless claims to 331,000 last week from 318,000 the previous week.

But some technology stocks did well, including Oracle, which was up nearly 2% to $11.82, and Juniper Networks, which rose more than 1% to $22.50. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock closed at $35.32, up 6 cents or 0.2%, on very heavy trading volume of more than 126 million shares.

Our information 100 index rose 3.81, or 1.3%, to close at 309.57, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.44, or less than 0.1%, to 1,926.03. The Dow fell 34.42, or 0.3%, to close at 10,010.74, while the S&P 500 fell 0.81, or less than 0.1%, to finish the day at 1,096.47.

See the full listing of all the companies in the information 100 and the top 5 percentage winners and losers for the last closing at http://www.information.com/stock.