WALL Street stocks fell sharply at first yesterday in another volatile session, but edged up at the end of the day after a sluggish reading on US retail sales held out hope for lower interest rates and inspired some bargain hunting.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.89 points to close at 5,583.89 hanging back from a deficit of more than 95 earlier in the afternoon.

On Monday, the index of blue chip companies gained more than 110 points, its third largest point gain ever, recouping much of Friday's 171 point sell off.

Broader market indicators rebounded during the afternoon, but still ended the day with bigger losses than the blue chips.

Declines led advances by a margin of 1,474 to 927, with 711 unchanged.

Big Board volume totalled 453.83 million shares, against 449.46 million in the previous session.

The NYSE's composite index fell 1.36 to 341.39.