Wall Street ended a volatile session mixed Wednesday as investors’ concerns about sluggish housing and tight credit intensified their uneasiness over a motley batch of corporate profits. Rising oil prices only added to the market’s malaise.

Earnings reports from Yahoo Inc. and Intel Corp. were upbeat and incited some buying in the technology sector, which drove the Nasdaq composite index sharply higher.

But the Dow Jones industrial average dipped, with investors uncertain about how well corporate America overall will fare going forward – particularly after International Business Machines Corp. reported modest software sales and United Technologies Group Inc. said 2008 will be challenging.

Peter Dunay, an investment strategist with New York-based Leeb Capital Management said third-quarter earnings are expected to be weak, and lackluster forecasts for future quarters are unnerving investors.

“We’re not getting very strong guidance numbers, and at the same time last week we were at new highs,” Dunay said.

The Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index both hit records last week, but Wall Street has pulled back cautiously since then, exhibiting nervousness about the slowing economy. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book that growth cooled in the third quarter. Investors are also jittery about accelerating inflation – which could prevent the Fed from lowering rates again – after oil prices momentarily touched a fresh high of $89 per barrel.

And the lending landscape continues to deteriorate. Standard & Poor’s cut the ratings on 1,713 classes of securities backed by mortgages issued in the first six months of this year. They were valued at $23.35 billion.

The Dow fell 20.40, or 0.15 percent, to 13,892.54, paring the session’s worst losses. The Dow fell more than 130 points in earlier trading.

Broader indexes rose. The S&P 500 index climbed 2.71, or 0.18 percent, to 1,541.24, while the Nasdaq gained 28.76, or 1.04 percent, to 2,792.67.

Wall Street’s mixed movements come after two days of broad declines. [MORE]