Dow off 140;
Nasdaq at record

NEW YORK -- The first day of trading on Wall Street in the year 2000 looked very much like a typical session of 1999. Soaring bond yields held most stocks lower, but technology investors weathered a volatile market and scooped up shares of their favorite companies. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 139.61, or 1.2 percent, to close at 11,357.51.

The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 14.08 to 1,455.17, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 61.84, or 1.52 percent, to 4,131.15. The Nasdaq composite rebounded from a loss of as much as 79 points to finish higher. The Nasdaq's gain brought it to a new closing record, launching the technology-dominated index into 2000 in the same fashion it wrapped up 1999.

Decliners beat advancers by nearly a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,140 down, 1,079 up and 308 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 927.15 million shares vs. 379.10 million at the close of Friday's shortened session. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 7.70 to 497.05.

Stocks initially rallied as trading began without any Y2K problems in the first session of 2000. But the good news for stocks proved devastating to the bond market, which tumbled as investors bet that the Fed will return to a policy of higher interest rates. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond as high as 6.62 percent, up from 6.48 at the close of trading Friday. Bond yields are now at the highest levels since Sept. 11, 1997, when long-term yields closed at 6.69 percent.