US stock indexes end mixed as oil price resumes a slide

NEW YORK (AP) - Another plunge in the price of oil kept the stock market in a tight range as investors worried that a long-running collapse in crude prices was resuming.

Ralph Lauren dropped 18 percent after the company reported lower earnings and slashed its sales forecast for the full year.

Disney rose after reporting stronger earnings, giving a small lift to the Dow Jones industrial average.

The Dow edged up six points, less than 0.1 percent, to 17,673.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell eight points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,041. The Nasdaq shed 11 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,716.

A rebound in oil prices fizzled out as the contract for U.S. crude dropped 8 percent to $48.88 a barrel. The government reported that crude inventories jumped last week.