NEW YORK — Wall Street ended mixed yesterday as concerns about the path of Hurricane Gustav sent oil prices higher and offset a better-than-expected reading on consumer confidence. Comments from the Federal Reserve about rising inflation added to the market’s uneasiness.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 26.62, or 0.23 percent, to 11,412.87. The blue-chip index crossed in and out of positive territory throughout the session.

Broader indexes were mixed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 4.67, or 0.37 percent, to 1,271.51; the Nasdaq composite fell 3.62, or 0.15 percent, to 2,361.97.

Stocks of Rhode Island importance rose, led by General Dynamics Corp. and Dominion Resources Inc. The Bloomberg Rhode Island Index, a price-weighted list of companies with operations in the region, rose 0.79 to 242.35. General Dynamics rose $1.09 to $92.21. Dominion rose 79 cents to $44.07.

The Fed’s release of minutes from its Aug. 5 meeting showed that the central bank remains concerned about creeping inflation and that it expected it would need to raise interest rates to try to contain rising prices.

At that meeting, policymakers held rates steady because “American businesses and consumers were facing elevated borrowing costs and reduced credit availability.” However, the Fed also said it was far from clear when a rate hike might come.

There was some optimism at the start of the day on Wall Street after the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 56.9 from a revised 51.9 last month and analysts had predicted a reading of 53. That marked the second month in a row that sentiment improved, after a six-month slide since January.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that sales of new houses rose 2.4 percent last month. While analysts predicted a drop in sales, the July increase followed a sharp downward revision to June’s sales.

However, concerns that Gustav would hit installations in the Gulf of Mexico in the coming days sent energy prices higher. A barrel of light, sweet crude oil ended the day up $1.16 at $116.27 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

“The overall mood is still one of caution, there’s not much out there to get investors excited,” said Todd Salamone, director of trading at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “But the bigger picture is that there hasn’t really been a major breakdown considering all the bad headlines out there, from higher oil prices to the credit crisis and troubled housing sector.”

Stocks have fluctuated during the past two sessions in part because of light trading, with many people on Wall Street taking the last week of August off. Advancing issues narrowly beat decliners by an 8-to-7 basis on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume consolidated came to an anemic 3.44 billion shares, compared with 3.37 billion shares on Monday.

Bonds were little changed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which trades opposite its price, fell to 3.78 percent in late trading from 3.79 percent late Monday. The dollar hit a six-month high against the euro and surged to a 25-month high against the pound, while gold prices advanced.

Alexander Paris, an economist and market analyst for Chicago-based Barrington Research, said investors continue to be fixated on a few key issues that have rattled the markets this month. The biggest concerns continue to be the “direction of oil prices and the credit markets,” he said.

“The market continues to question the same things, and we’re not really getting any answers,” he said. “I think that’s one of the reasons why people are staying on the sidelines.”

Troubles in the housing sector still aren’t showing any clear signs of abating. The widely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index tumbled the most ever during the second quarter, falling 15.4 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

However, shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac climbed for a second day amid growing expectations among some investors that the mortgage financiers will be able to weather the housing storm without a government rescue.

Fannie shares rose 43 cents, or 8.3 percent, to $5.62 in morning trading, while Freddie soared 68 cents, or 21 percent, to $3.97.

In other corporate news, Smithfield Foods Inc., the nation’s largest hog producer and pork processor, said yesterday it swung to a fiscal first-quarter loss, due in part to a $20.1 million write-down in the value of commodities contracts. Shares fell $1.62, or 6.9 percent, to $21.91.

Credit Suisse Group said it has acquired a majority stake in U.S.-based company Asset Management Finance Corp. for $384 million of newly issued Credit Suisse stock. Shares of Credit Suisse fell 27 cents to $44.81.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.97, or 0.41 percent, to 723.51.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.78 percent. At the close, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.63 percent, Germany’s DAX index was up 0.69 percent, and France’s CAC-40 was up 0.29 percent.