Dow recovers,
ends up 30.89

NEW YORK -- Stocks ended higher today after bargain hunters descended in the final hour of trading, bailing the Dow Jones industrials out of a 50-point loss.

The Dow closed up 30.89 at 8,062.11. The index had lost 156 points on Friday and 71 points on Thursday, slipping from its all-time closing high of 8,259.31 last Wednesday.

Decliners outnumbered advancers by 1,482 to 1,375 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 528 unchanged. NYSE volume was 480.34 million shares vs. 561.33 million on Friday.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock list rose 3.46 to 937.00, and the NYSE composite index rose 1.42 to 485.21.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 11.81 to 1,586.71, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 1.80 to 644.35.

Rao Chalasani, chief investment strategist at Everen Securities in Chicago, said the upward bias to the market proved powerful enough that, once bonds got on even footing this afternoon, stocks were able to take off to the upside again.

"There is just so much money in stocks," Chalasani said, noting last week's news that funds in money-market accounts had reached a record $1 trillion.

"And the bond market, I don't believe, is going to go down any further; I think 6.66 percent (on the 30-year Treasury bond) was the worst we're going to see."

The 30-year Treasury was up 1/32 point late in the day and yielding 6.63 percent, after reversing a 1/4-point loss reported in early afternoon.