Stocks end choppy session mixed

NEW YORK -- Stocks finished a bumpy session mostly higher Friday, as investors, while still somewhat cautious about the economy, were encouraged by the government's pledge to lend as much as $17.4 billion to U.S. automakers.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished down about 25 points, but both the broader Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes posted moderate advances, finishing higher for the second straight week in a row. Stocks that rose outpaced those that fell by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Though the session was choppy — with the Dow rising as many as 182 points in early trading, then moving in and out of negative territory for much of the afternoon — it was a relatively calm day on Wall Street compared with the wild swings experienced in September, October and early November.

In the early going, investors cheered the government's pledge to provide General Motors and Chrysler with $13.4 billion in short-term financing, and another $4 billion at a later date.

The decision to provide emergency help to carry the struggling industry into the new year comes after a $14 billion bailout for the automakers failed to make it out of the Senate last week.

The companies' cash flows have been dwindling to a slow trickle due to the weak economy, slumping sales and the credit crunch.

But the aid hinges on conditions that must be quickly met; GM and Chrysler must prove viability, defined as positive cash flow and the ability to pay back government loans, by March 31. Ford Motor, meanwhile, is not asking for short-term assistance, but its CEO predicted the aid will stabilize the broader industry.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner said the company had much work ahead, but he was confident it could reinvent itself with the government help.

Some analysts expressed doubts.

"I think that there's a lot of skepticism about how much real reform we're likely to see, particularly at GM, given the parameters under which the loans have been made," said Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist at RidgeWorth Investments. "There is a lot of skepticism about whether GM is prepared to do what needs to be done."