NEW YORK -- Technology issues lent some strength to Wall Street today, driving most stocks higher and helping the Dow Jones industrials end a four-day losing streak. The Dow rose 108.60 to close at 10,937.88. It was the first gain for the blue-chip index since last Wednesday, when the index closed at a record 11,326.04. Dow up 108.6
The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 10.66 to 1,331.07, and the Nasdaq composite gained 11.45 to 2,750.80.
Advancers beat decliners by a 4-to-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,708 up, 1,249 down and 535 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 702.43 million shares vs. 845.46 million yesterday. The NYSE composite gained 4.96 to 617.29; the American Stock Exchange composite advanced 7.78 to 783.19; the Russell 2000 index rose 3.16 to 430.99.
The price of the 30-year Treasury bond, down almost 3 percent in the past week, today dropped 22/32 point, or $6.871/2 per $1,000 face value. Its yield, rose two basis points to 6.08 percent from 6.06 late yesterday, and is up more than 20 basis points since Aug. 25. Two-year note yields remained at 5.72 percent today.
Intel Corp. led the Nasdaq and was among the strongest components of the Standard & Poor's 500 as it unveiled a new microprocessor chip intended for use in devices that route information across the Internet. Analysts said the development raised expectations that the Internet boom will feed continued growth at computer companies. In a similar vein, IBM was one of the strongest Dow stocks today. IBM and Cisco said yesterday they will jointly provide networking equipment and services to companies looking to do business online.