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NEW YORK -- Persistent concerns about rising oil prices and their impact on corporate profits sent stocks sharply lower today, but bargain hunting late in the session pulled technology stocks higher, enabling them to rally for a second straight day. Dow falls 101
Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrials, down as much as 227 points in afternoon trading, recovered more than half that drop and closed down 101.37 at 10,687.92.
The tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index rose 31.80 to 3,897.44 after being down most of the day. And the Standard & Poor's 500 was off 8.56 at 1,451.34, also up from its lows of the day.
Decliners outnumbered advancers by a 14-to-9 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,648 down, 1,147 up and 514 unchanged. Volume came to nearly 1.11 billion shares, ahead of the 1.02 billion yesterday. The NYSE composite index fell 7.27 to 653.84, the American Stock Exchange composite index dropped 13.91 to 936.77 and the Russell 2000 index fell 1.88 to 521.43.
The 10-year Treasury note fell 10/32 to 98 29/32. Its yield rose 4 basis points to 5.89 percent, the highest since Aug. 9. The current 30-year bond, among securities most vulnerable to inflation, fell 23/32 to 104 1/32, and its yield rose 5 basis points to 5.96 percent.
"We had a terribly horrible day going on until the later afternoon when we had a nice turnaround," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "The market rallied nicely. You can attribute some of that to the price of oil trading down a little bit. I also think there's clearly some bargain hunting going on."
Oil, which is trading at decade-high levels, is one reason for the volatility, said Tom Galvin of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities. A barrel of light sweet crude sold for $37.20 today on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after trading as high as $37.80.