NEW YORK, March 10: The major US share indexes closed mixed on Friday as investors generally welcomed the latest news on the nation's job growth and a narrowing of the US trade deficit.

Traders said separate reports, showing that non farm job growth increased in line with expectations and that the US trade deficit had narrowed to 59.1 billion dollars, had helped stave off recessionary fears.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 15.62 points (0.13 per cent) at 12,276.32, but was off earlier highs.

The technology-stacked Nasdaq composite ended down 0.18 points (0.01 per cent) at 2,387.55 while the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index finished up a slender 0.96 points (0.07 per cent) at 1,402.85.

Homebuilder stocks and some mortgage firm shares remained under pressure amid a slump in the US housing market. Construction sector layoffs were ratcheted up in February despite the overall job gains.

Gains today were limited by New Century Financial's announcement that it will stop making home loans. This deepened concern that mortgage defaults will hurt the financial industry, said Al Goldman, a senior market strategist at A.G. Edwards.

New Century Financial, the third largest US subprime lender, saw its stock close down 66 cents (17 per cent) at 3.21 dollars. The mortgage group's shares have plunged in the past week after it announced a criminal probe into its practices.

Pulte Homes ended down 18 cents at $28.76 while KB Home was down 88 cents at $47.91.

On the economic front, the government reported that US employers added 97,000 jobs in February.

The non farm job numbers suggested the world's biggest economy is chugging along despite weakness in the housing and auto sectors, and offset fears that recessionary clouds could be gathering over the horizon.

The unemployment rate, taken from a separate survey of households, dipped to 4.5 per cent of the active population from 4.6 per cent.

Despite the slowing trend in job growth, with the upward revisions to earlier months, the US economy continues to generate solid gains in employment, said Paul Ferly, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.

The Commerce Department meanwhile said the US trade deficit narrowed in January to 59.1 billion dollars thanks to record-breaking export growth, but cheap Chinese goods still flooded US malls.

The shortfall fell from the revised December figure of 61.5 billion dollars. Analysts said that should help US economic growth, as exports add to gross domestic product (GDP).

Banking titan Citigroup also remained in focus.

Citigroup's bid for Nikko Cordial appeared to hit a stumbling block after the biggest shareholder in the scandal-hit Japanese brokerage firm reportedly rebuffed its 10.7-billion-dollar offer as being too low.

In our view, the long-term value of Nikko Cordial is in excess of 2,000 billion yen (17.2 billion dollars), Harris Associates fund manager David Herro reportedly told the Financial Times newspaper.

Citigroup's stock ended down 17 cents at $50.33.

Bonds weakend as investors shifted back into stocks.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond jumped to 4.589 per cent from 4.509 per cent Thursday and that on the 30-year bond climbed to 4.723 per cent from 4.650 per cent.

Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.—AFP