NEW YORK -- Stocks edged higher in another calm session today, but the Dow Jones industrial average faltered just as it was completing a rapid recovery from last week's bruising tumble. Retreat leaves Dow up 3
The Dow bounced back from an early 25-point deficit and rose as much as 76 points, but retreated over the final hour to finish just 3.44 points higher at 7,692.57.
The blue-chip barometer is now just 23 points shy of where it was before last Monday's seemingly traumatic 554-point plunge, but is still more than 300 points shy of where the it stood before the financial turmoil in Southeast Asia boiled over two weeks ago.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index, a popular benchmark for mutual funds, managed enough of a gain to wipe out the damage from last Monday's slide.
Advancers outnumbered decliners by a 7-to-5 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,694 up, 1,208 down and 532 unchanged.
NYSE volume totaled 564.89 million shares up from yesterday's brisk 537.18 million, but still well below the record-busting pace seen last week.
The S&P 500 rose 2.00 to 942.76, slightly better than its 941.64 level before last Monday's plunge.
The NYSE composite index rose 1.77 to 495.77, just enough to surpass its pre-plunge level of 495.76.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 6.18 to 1,637.33, the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 1.98 to 690.35, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.45 to 444.76.
Technology shares posted only slim gains despite a strong profit report from Cisco Systems.