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

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

The 30-year Treasury was up 132 point late in the day and yielding 6.63 per cent, after reversing a 1/4-point loss reported in early afternoon.

Declining issues edged out advancers on the Big Board, and volume was low.

The Nasdaq composite lost ground as technology stocks took a drubbing, and the American Exchange index was lower late in the day. But the NYSE composite and the S and P 500 index were up slightly.

The market "just spent the last 48 hours, from Thursday through Monday morning, reminding you that it's not quite so easy" to make money in stocks, said Mr Jim Meyer, director of research at Janney Montgomery Scott Inc.