Wall Street stocks gave back more of this month's gains yesterday, extending last week's retreat from record highs as interest rates in a jittery bond market rose to their highest level in four months.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 35.79 points in its fourth straight losing session, to close at 6,660.69.

The blue-chip index, which slid nearly 61 points after surrendering an opening 12-point gain, has lost about 223 points over the past four sessions, nearly halving the year's gains to 3.3 per cent.

Broad-market measures were also down, pressured by another weak day in the bond market.

IBM was the Dow's biggest loser, sliding for the fourth successive day in the aftermath of the company's fourth-quarter results.

Declines outnumbered advances by nearly a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 859 up, 1,673 down and 789 unchanged.

The NYSE volume came to a total of 445.54 million shares, against 542.77 million in the previous session.