NEW YORK -- Blue-chip stocks escaped with small gains today, but only after a bigger rally unraveled as a long list of global uncertainties proved too hard to ignore. Dow up 36.04
The Dow Jones industrial average finished just 36.04 points higher at 8,602.65 after retreating from a 122-point gain and briefly dipping into negative terrain.
Several broad-market indexes also finished higher, but the number of decliners surpassed advancers despite trailing by a substantial margin in the morning.
The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 4.67 to 1,092.81, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 7.06 to 1,797.88.
Decliners outnumbered advancers by an 11-to-9 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,370 up, 1,675 down and 505 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 663.76 million shares, up from 557.23 million yesterday.
The NYSE composite index rose 1.29 to 545.01, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 2.46 to 646.86.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 3.94 to 389.76.
Bonds rose for the third time in four days, boosted by a strengthening dollar, falling commodity prices and expectations that tumult in world financial markets won't soon abate. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond rose 18/32, or $5.63 per $1,000 bond, to yield 5.43 percent, down 4 basis points.
The dollar rose to 144.21 yen in New York trading from 144.20 yesterday.
The opening rally was fueled by big gains in the technology and financial sectors, the two industries deemed most vulnerable to the global economic turmoil that has rattled the market for more than a month.