Stock prices ended mixed, and essentially flat, on Wednesday despite some glum economic news. After a few days of declining prices, light crude rose to $43.90 a barrel in October, a rise of $1.78. And the Institute of Supply Management's manufacturing index came in at 59.0 in August, lower than analysts' expectations.

"The market really needs to see some positive economic statistics, and we haven't been getting them lately," Brian Williamson, an equity trader at The Boston Company Asset Management, told The Associated Press. "The next few days are going to be critical to see where we stand, and to see whether or not we're in an economic soft patch ... or if we're in a slump."

The InformationWeek 100 index rose 2.61, or 0.9%, to close at 281.80, while the Nasdaq composite rose 12.31, or 0.7%, to 1,850.41. The Dow fell 5.46 to close at 10,168.46; the S&P 500 rose 1.67, or 0.2%, to rest at 1,105.91.

The Nasdaq 100 tracking stock closed at $34.27, up 25 cents, or 0.7%, on average volume of about 96 million shares.

See the full listing of all the companies in the InformationWeek 100 and the top 5 percentage winners and losers for the last closing at informationweek.com/stocks.