Bargain-hunters buoy Dow despite rate fears

Prices were mixed in a volatile session on Wall Street yesterday as investors, while searching for bargain stocks, were dogged…

Prices were mixed in a volatile session on Wall Street yesterday as investors, while searching for bargain stocks, were dogged by worries about interest rates.

The Dow Jones, which had been down as much as 115 points early in the day, rallied in the afternoon to close up 85.32 at 10,304.84. The technology-focused Nasdaq composite index, however, was unable to shake off concerns about interest rates and fell 31.07 to 4,380.67.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing issues on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,681 down, 1,390 up and 444 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 971.03 million shares, against 1.03 billion in the previous session.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 5.66 to 540.02 and the Standard and Poor's 500 rose 5.88 to 1,351.97.