(09-10) 07:29 PDT NEW YORK, (AP) —

Wall Street turned mixed Monday as investors awaited more word from Federal Reserve officials to offer insight into the central bank’s plans following a dismal employment report Friday.

The market advanced in early trading, but the gains weren’t broad and were quickly lost. Many banks, retailers and homebuilders fell due to ongoing nervousness about the housing market’s drag on the economy.

There is little economic data due Monday, but San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher and Fed Governor Frederic Mishkin are slated to speak at various events. Investors will be keen to learn their perspectives on the health of the economy and for any hints as to what the central bank might do when it meets Sept. 18.

Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said early Monday investors should consider Friday’s unemployment report alongside a mostly strong batch of retail sales reports seen recently. And over the weekend, Philadelphia Fed Chief Charles Plosser said in reference to Friday’s payroll number that the Fed’s Open Market Committee doesn’t make rate decisions based on any one number, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

For many investors, a rate cut after more than a year of the Fed standing pat on rates is inevitable. The debate, as they see it, is whether the Fed will reduce rates by a quarter percentage point or a half percentage point.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 16.10, or 0.12 percent, to 13,129.48.

Broader stock indexes fell. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 1.10, or 0.08 percent, 1,452.45, and the Nasdaq composite index was down 4.66, or 0.18 percent, at 2,561.04.

The market appeared a bit steadier after a sell-off on the jobs report that sent the Dow down 250 points, but still unsure about the direction of the economy. While some investors had hoped for weakness in the report to help the Federal Reserve justify cutting interest rates when it meets next week, the market was shocked by a loss in jobs when a gain had been expected.

Bonds were little changed, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note at 4.37 percent, the same as late Friday.

The dollar slipped against most other major currencies, while gold prices, which have risen sharply in recent weeks amid concerns about the strength of the U.S. dollar, rose to fresh multiyear highs. A rate cut by the Fed could hurt dollar-denominated assets, prompting some investors to shift into gold.

The rise in the stock market Monday follows a week in which the major indexes all lost more than 1 percent due to Friday’s retrenchment. The Labor Department’s report that August payrolls fell, marking the first monthly decline in four years, further depressed a market already uneasy about a lackluster housing market, tightening availability of credit and a rise in mortgage defaults. The drop in payrolls stirred concerns of a recession.

With consumer spending accounting for about two-thirds of economic activity, Wall Street is concerned about any drop in employment that would make consumers hesitant to spend.

Giving some technology stocks a boost, Intel Corp. rose 23 cents to $25.70 after raising its sales outlook, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. rose 15 cents to $12.75 after releasing its newest microprocessor.

Also, Apple Inc. rose more than 2 percent after selling its 1 millionth iPhone on Sunday.

The market absorbed more news of fallout from mortgage failures. Countrywide Financial Corp. said after the closing bell Friday it would cut as many as 12,000 jobs Д up to 20 percent of it work force Д as the mortgage lender tries to ride out upheaval in the mortgage industry. The company expects new mortgages to fall 25 percent next year.

Countrywide fell 71 cents, or 4 percent, to $17.50.

Light, sweet crude fell 86 cents to $75.84 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was down 0.63, or 0.08 percent, at 775.16.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 2.22 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.15 percent, Germany’s DAX index was down 0.12 percent, and France’s CAC-40 was up 0.08 percent.

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LAS VEGAS: After a whole afternoon playing No-Limit Texas Hold Em poker, this was the moment that Donny Campbell had been waiting for.

Hunched over a poker table in a back room here at Caesars Palace, Campbell looked down at his cards to see a pair of queens. One of his two opponents had bet $300 in chips, and the other $600, and now the bet had come around to him.

Campbell stared into the distance, as if to bore a hole through the wall with his eyes. He paused. Then he looked at his cards again.

“I re-raise,” he said, pushing $1,200 in chips to the center of the table.

This rattled the others. The first opponent folded his cards quietly. The second, sighing, did the same.

But before Campbell could celebrate his victory, Mark Seif, a prize-winning poker player who was dealing the hand, interjected a stern dose of advice.

“That just worked out, but that re-raise might have been risky considering which cards could have beaten you,” Seif said. “Position is important, but just because youre last to act doesnt always mean you need to be the aggressor.”

Campbell smiled with gratitude. Under normal circumstances, he might have been embarrassed after making such a strategic gaffe in the presence of greatness. On this day, however, Seifs evaluation was exactly what Campbell had paid for as a student at the World Series of Poker Academy.

The academy, run by the World Series of Poker and held in different cities throughout the year, is essentially a two- or three-day poker sleepaway camp - a chance for up to 200 amateur players to improve their games with advice from the pros. The World Poker Tour Boot Camp, affiliated with the World Poker Tour, is organized much the same way, and offers similar opportunities for smaller groups - up to 60 players at a time.

As more people take up poker as a hobby, the two camps are hot commodities. Combined, the schools have offered nearly 40 camps since January, and nearly every one of them has been sold out.

Tuition for these experiences is not cheap, generally ranging from $1,695 to $4,300. But Jeffrey Pollack, commissioner of the World Series of Poker, says that for people who are serious enough about poker to take a class, the money is a stake in the future.

For those players thinking about playing in events where the buy-in, or cost of entry, is $5,000 or $10,000, Pollack said that “a couple thousand dollars for valuable instruction is almost like an insurance policy,” adding that both schools offer classes in a variety of poker games.

“The truth is that we cant set these things up fast enough,” he said.

For some poker fanatics, returns on their investments are subtle: a new strategy for hiding the starting hand of ace-king, or a new approach to semi-bluffing, which is a bet or raise on a straight or flush draw.

But for other amateurs, the experience has been soon followed by major winnings.

Consider Bill Spadea, who paid $3,000 for a seat at a World Poker Tour camp. Days later, he won $429,114 for finishing 13th at the World Series of Poker Main Event, which cost $10,000 to enter.

Then there was Lee Childs, who said he paid $1,500 for a different World Poker Tour camp and bagged $705,229 at the Main Event for finishing seventh. Childs said that he bought a seat at the boot camp only to brush up on some fundamentals.

“Id say it was money well spent,” Childs said of the tuition. “I knew how to play poker going in, but hearing these professionals teach discipline got me out of a bunch of hands in the tournament that I probably would have played if I hadnt just been reminded to stay away from them.”

The curriculums at the schools are similar. Every day starts with a keynote speaker - a poker professional, in most cases, but sometimes an expert on statistics or gambling strategy.

At the World Series of Poker Academy in July, Joe Navarro, a former special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, spoke about reading body language. One of Navarros classic tips: When a player has a good hand, he usually looks down at his chips.

Around lunchtime, students at both schools hit the tables for live demonstrations. These sessions are just like cash action in a poker room, except that the dealers at each table are professional poker players - like Seif, Greg Raymer, Linda Johnson, Clonie Gowan, Scott Fischman and others.

QUINCY, Massachusetts: For years, Twin Rivers Technologies sold the byproducts from soybean and other natural oils it processes to pet food makers. But as energy prices began to rise, the company found a better use for leftover oils: fuel.

Today, these leftovers account for about half the fuel Twin Rivers burns at its Quincy plant, saving the company millions of dollars in energy costs.

The self-generated fuel is just part of Twin Rivers efforts to become energy independent. It also uses steam from its manufacturing process to generate electricity and hopes to eventually add wind power, too.

“Our goal,” said the company president, Paul Angelico, “is to be fossil fuel free within five years.”

Twin Rivers is among the growing number of U.S. businesses - from small markets to the retail giant Staples - that are trying to gain control over soaring energy costs by producing it themselves. Some are turning waste into fuel. Others are investing in wind, solar, and hydro power. Still others, like Twin Rivers, are combining different technologies.

Driving the move to self-generation is the surge in energy prices and uncertainty about how high they might go. A few years ago, businesses were reluctant to invest in energy projects, said Warren Leon, director of Massachusettss Renewable Energy Trust, which funds alternative energy initiatives through small utility surcharges.

But with prices still rising, businesses believe high energy costs are here to stay, Leon said. As a result, applications to a trust program that helps finance alternative energy projects for businesses and institutions have more than doubled since 2004.

“If youre just purchasing energy on the market, you are vulnerable to its swings,” Leon said. “But when you have something onsite, like a wind turbine, you can get some predictability.”

Gaining control over energy costs is one reason Ring Brothers Marketplace, a specialty grocer in South Dennis, Massachusetts, plans to install a system to turn food waste into electricity. Electricity accounts for about 15 to 20 percent of the stores costs, said Patrick Ring, the manager and buyer.

The system, which will cost about $280,000, including $195,000 in grants from the Renewable Energy Trust, composts spoiled produce, meat and other organic material to produce methane gas. The gas fuels a turbine, which, depending on the amount of organic waste available, could generate more electricity than the store needs, Ring said.

“We needed to figure how to cut down on our electrical costs because theyre so high,” Ring said.

Staples, meanwhile, is pursuing wind power to provide about 25 percent of the electricity it needs at its Framingham, Massachusetts, headquarters, said Mark Buckley, vice president of environmental affairs. The office supply retailer is undertaking wind projects at three other U.S. locations and is also installing solar energy systems.

So far, Staples has installed solar panels at nine locations, including a distribution center in Killingly, Connecticut, where solar power generates about 15 percent of the facilitys electricity.

“We want to be more energy-independent,” Buckley said. “Its good for the bottom line, good for the environment, and good for the communities we serve.”

For Massachusetts companies, its also good for survival.

Massachusetts businesses are saddled with the third-highest energy costs in the nation, paying 51 percent more than the national average, according to Economy.com, a forecasting firm in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

“If youre competing against states where electric rates are 40 or 50 percent lower, its tough,” said Robert Rio, vice president of government affairs at Associated Industries of Massachusetts. “Its pushing people to become their own energy managers.”

Twin Rivers competes not only against U.S. companies, but also foreign manufacturers, many with lower labor and other costs. The company, which operates from a former Procter Gamble soap plant, refines oils from soybeans, coconuts, sunflowers and beef tallow to make chemicals used in soaps, detergents, cosmetics, lubricants, and foods.

Angelico, the company president, said Twin Rivers decided to try burning the natural oil byproduct as fuel several years ago when the price of petroleum began to rise. The company spent about $75,000 on testing.

Twin Rivers, which burns all the byproduct it generates, combines it with fuel oil in a 50-50 mixture. The company discovered the byproduct had another benefit: It cut pollutants by an average of about 30 percent.

Twin Rivers subsequently patented the substance as a clean air additive.

Twin Rivers burns the mixture to produce steam for manufacturing.

The company then found another way to cut energy costs by using excess steam energy to drive a turbine, which now generates about a third of the plants electricity. Twin Rivers has cut its combined energy costs by about $3 million a year, including alternative and renewable energy tax credits, Angelico said.