Stocks post slight gains early

Stocks turned fractionally negative in New York Friday in early trading as the Conference Board said the U.S. leading indicators rose in July. The Leading Economic Index rose 0.4 percent to 95.8 in the month after falling 0.4 percent in June, the Conference Board said. In midmorning trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.04 points to 13,250.07. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index slipped 0.20 points or 0.01 percent to 3,062.19. The Standard and Poor's 500 dipped 0.69 points or 0.05 percent to 1,414.82. With no price change, the benchmark 10-year treasury was flat, yielding 1.837 percent. Against the euro, the dollar rose to $1.2294 from $1.2357 Thursday. Against the yen, the dollar rose to 79.58 from 78.36 yen. In Tokyo, the Nikkei closed at 9,162.50, adding 69.74 points, or 0.77 percent.