NEW YORK -- Stocks managed their strongest rally in more than a week today as bargain-hunting investors stepped into a market driven down by fears of higher interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 119.05 to close at 10,793.82. In morning trading, the Dow had fallen 108 points. Dow jumps 119
The S&P 500 rose 8.38 to 1,313.71, and the Nasdaq composite rose 25.83 to 2,565.81. For the Nasdaq, heavily weighted with technology stocks, it was the first gain since last Wednesday, leaving it 10.5 percent below its July 16 record close of 2,864.48.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,816 issues declined, 1,194 rose and 491 were unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 862.07 million shares vs. 788.5 million yesterday. The NYSE composite index rose 2.93 to 617.39; the American Stock Exchange composite index fell .86 to 776.09. The Russell 2000 index rose 0.05 to 429.75.
The 30-year bond rose 3/4, or $7.50 per $1,000 face amount, to a price of 89 3/32, marking the biggest one-day gains since July 12. Its yield fell 6 basis points to 6.04 percent. Yields on two-year notes, among the first securities investors buy when seeking safety, fell 8 basis points to 5.53 percent.
Yahoo!, which fell steeply in early trading, ended higher. ETrade, one of the dominant online brokerages, rose.
Stocks were thrown off balance in early trading by the Labor Department's report on productivity and labor costs. The department said U.S. workers' productivity slowed significantly in the spring, rising at an annual rate of just 1.3 percent, while labor costs surged at an annual rate of 3.8 percent, the worst showing for this measurement since the end of 1997.