Stocks mixed on jobs news

NEW YORK -- Stocks bounced between small gains and losses Wednesday after the price of oil topped $102 a barrel as Libya edged closer to a civil war.

Rebel forces in the country repelled an attack on a key oil port by forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi. Crude oil prices rose to $102.26 a barrel, continuing a weeklong surge that has pushed gas prices up 20 cents a gallon. Stocks fell Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that persistent high oil prices could threaten the pace of the economic recovery

``When you look at the stock market any given day it's hard to isolate cause and effect, but today we don't have that problem,'' said Lawrence Creatura, a portfolio manager at Federated Investors. ``Investors will have one eye on oil prices for quite some time.''

The market had started higher after a surprisingly strong report came out on private sector employment. Payroll processor ADP said private companies added 217,000 jobs last month, well above the 180,000 analysts had predicted. That raised hopes that the government's employment report coming up Friday could show a decline in the unemployment rate, which is currently 9 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 3 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,055 in afternoon trading. The S&P 500 was flat at 1,306. The Nasdaq composite gained 10 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,747.

Retail companies reported mixed earnings reports before the market opened. Staples Inc. fell 1 percent after reporting income that was slightly below what analysts were expecting. Costco Wholesale Corp. fell 1.3 percent after reporting earnings that met expectations.

Apple Inc. is expected to announce a new version of its iPad tablet computer later in the day. The company's stock rose 0.3 percent, to $350.47.