U.S. stocks ended mostly lower Friday, but still eked out small weekly gains, as weakness in shares of mining and chemical companies, along with a rise in active oil rigs, blunted an advance in the energy sector and rising oil prices. Still the Nasdaq closed at an all-time high, one session after all three benchmarks posted record closes on the same day for the first time since 1999. The S&P 500 index ended down 1.8 points, or 0.1%, at 2,183.99, weighed by sharp declines in Alcoa Inc. and Nucor Corp. and Dow Chemical Co. , followed by a 0.4% loss in the telecom sector. Three of the index’s 10 sectors ended in positive territory, with energy leading the gains, up 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 37.53 points, or 0.2%, to 18,575.9, pulled down by a 1.9% drop in DuPont and a 0.9% drop in IBM Corp. but buoyed by a 1.3% gain in Exxon Mobil Corp. . Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 4.5 points, or 0.1%, at 5,232.89, an all-time closing high.
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