NEW YORK -- Last minute buying lifted the Dow Jones industrial average into positive territory today, but a recovery in the shares of large technology companies failed to ignite the rest of the stock market and left broader indexes mixed. Dow regains 44
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 44.28 points to close at 9,177.31 after swinging narrowly between positive and negative all day.
Decliners led advancers by more than 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,163 up, 1,824 down and 542 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 722.88 million shares vs. 712.84 million yesterday.
The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 7.41 to 1,223.55, but the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 1.29 to close at 2,309.50. The NYSE composite index rose 1.99 to 578.61. But the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 3.42 to 688.82 and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 5.17 to 397.96.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond slipped 7/8 point, or $8.75 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield rose to 5.36 percent from 5.30 percent late yesterday. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Today's gain in the Dow, which followed a 148-point loss yesterday, would have been less had it not been for IBM, which rose all day amid strength in non-Internet computer stocks, and in General Electric.
Traders and analysts have become increasingly worried that the only strength in the market right now is in technology stocks.
"The rallies are incredibly narrow; the sell-offs are broad," said Larry Rice, chief investment officer at Josephthal & Co.