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Dow falls 57
Associated PressNEW YORK -- Technology stocks regained leadership of the stock market today, rising sharply and helping pull blue-chip names shake off a pair of economic reports that suggested more interest-rate increases are on the way.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 143.94 to close at 3,774.03. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 57.40 to close at 10,888.10. Earlier in the session, the Dow fell as much as 197 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 3.93 to 1,464.92.
Decliners beat advancers by an 11-to-9 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,588 down, 1,312 up and 510 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 1.11 billion sharesvs. 985.56 million yesterday. The Russell 2000 index rose 10.34, or 2 percent, to 494.58. The NYSE composite fell 3.86 to 650.45; and the American Stock Exchange index gained 5.66 to 902.09.
The 30-year Trasury bond price fell 19/32 point, or $5.94 per $1,000 in face value; its yield rose 4 basis points to 5.98 percent, and briefly reached 6 percent for the first time since March 20. The two-year yield rose 14 basis points to 6.62 percent, the biggest increase in more than 3 months. The five-year yield rose 14 basis points to 6.52 percent and the 10-year yield climbed 10 points to 6.23 percent.
Telecommunications stocks led the Nasdaq's advance after posting strong corporate earnings reports. MCI WorldCom rose after announcing it beat Wall Street's first-quarter earnings expectations by 1 cent a share. The company saw net income soar to $1.3 billion from $730 million a year ago on surging data and Internet sales. Wireless company Nextel narrowed its first-quarter loss and its stock rose.