NEW YORK -- The stock market stabilized today following three days of volatile trading, but tense investors traded cautiously amid continuing uncertainty about the economy in this country and overseas. Dow retakes 10,000
By Amy Baldwin
but Nasdaq falls
Associated PressAlthough investors were hoping that the 317-point plunge that blue chips took yesterday would inspire a rally, they saw little reason to actually do much buying.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 57.82 to 10,031.28 after rising more than 100 points earlier. The Dow fell below 10,000 yesterday for the first time in five months and fluctuated above and below that milestone throughout yesterday's dealings. But the Nasdaq composite index today fell 31.38 to 1,940.71 after taking a hit Monday that sent it below the 2,000 level for the first time in more than 27 months.
Wall Street's broadest measure, the Standard & Poor's 500 index, was up 6.85 at 1,173.56. However, the S&P 500 has lost nearly a fourth of its value since its closing high of 1,527.46, reached a year ago.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 17 to 13 on the New York Stock Exchange where volume was 963.19 million vs. 1.10 billion yesterday.
The NYSE composite index rose 5.09 to 598.85, the American Stock Exchange lost 3.99 to 883.15 and the Russell 2000 index, which tracks the performance of smaller company stocks, slipped 1.52 to 452.17.
The Treasury's 10-year note rose 5/32 to 100 19/32; its yield fell 2 basis points to 4.79 percent. The 30-year bond fell 5/32 to 101 14/32; its yield rose 1 basis point to 5.28 percent.
The dive that blue chips took yesterday was particularly unsettling, because such declines had for months been reserved for the Nasdaq. Since late last year, investors had been taking some comfort in thinking that the slowing economy was hurting only the riskier tech sector.
"A lot of people were looking at the staple stocks as sort of immune to the bubble popping that happened in the tech stocks. (But) it has carried over to a limited degree," to blue chips, said Richard A. Dickson, an analyst at Scott & Stringfellow Inc. in Richmond, Va.
While the market expected the Nasdaq to test the 2,000 level, the Dow's falling below 10,000 and with all 30 of its stocks tumbling was "a yellow flag being raised that the rest of the market isn't immune," Dickson said.