NEW YORK » Stocks finished a bumpy session mostly higher yesterday, as investors, while still somewhat cautious about the economy, were encouraged by the government's pledge to lend as much as $17.4 billion to U.S. automakers.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished down about 25 points, but both the broader Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes posted moderate advances, finishing higher for the second straight week in a row. Stocks that rose outpaced those that fell by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Though the session was choppy—with the Dow rising as many as 182 points in early trading, then moving in and out of negative territory for much of the afternoon—it was a relatively calm day on Wall Street compared with the wild swings experienced in September, October and early November.

In the early going, investors cheered the government's pledge to provide General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC with $13.4 billion in short-term financing, and another $4 billion at a later date.

GM shares jumped 83 cents, or 23 percent, to close at $4.49, while Ford shares added 11 cents or 3.9 percent to $2.95. Chrysler is not publicly traded.

The Dow fell 25.88, or 0.30 percent, to 8,579.11. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.60, or 0.29 percent, to 887.88, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 11.95, or 0.77 percent, to 1,564.32.

For the week, the Dow ended down 0.59 percent, while the S&P 500 finished up 0.93 percent and the Nasdaq up 1.53 percent. All of the indexes are still down more than 35 percent for the year.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq was lifted by big gains from Oracle Corp. and Research In Motion Ltd., both of which released earnings reports after the bell on Thursday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 7.09, or 1.48 percent, to 486.26.

Volume on the NYSE came to 2.14 billion shares.

Earlier yesterday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that Congress should release the second $350 billion from the rescue fund that it approved in October to bail out financial institutions.

Yields on long-term Treasurys recovered from record lows yesterday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 2.12 percent late Friday from 2.07 percent late Thursday.

The yield on the popular three-month T-bill—whose yield has at times gone negative due to frenzied buying—rose slightly to 0.01 percent from zero late Thursday.

The January contract for light, sweet crude, which expired yesterday, fell $2.35 to settle at $36.22, the lowest close in nearly five years after falling at one point to $33.44.

The dollar rose against other major currencies. Gold prices fell.