Worst week ever on Wall St

New York - Wall Street has ended a wild session with its best showing of the week after investors went in search of bargains among stocks devastated by seven days of massive losses.

The Nasdaq composite index finished with a modest gain, while the Dow Jones industrials lost 128 points, a relataively mild drop after the blue chips fell 2 271 during the previous eight trading days. Still, the Dow, which traded in a range of 1 019 points Friday, had its worst week ever, as did the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Investors have spent much of the past month agonizing over a credit market that remains frozen, posing a threat to the economy. But Friday's gainers included financial stocks, the ones most decimated amid the ongoing banking and credit crisis.

Frozen credit markets and a loss of confidence in the world's financial system have caused the Dow to drop 21% in just 10 trading days. The blue chip index tumbled 678 points Thursday, and is heading to its worst weekly point and percentage drop since being created 112 years ago.

The major indexes had sharp swings throughout the day, likely exacerbated by the computer-driven "buy" and "sell" orders that kicked in when prices fell far enough to make some stocks look like attractive bets or make other investors want to exit the market. The spurts of buying didn't reflect an easing of the market's despair, and so the heavy selling continued.

"Fear has been running rampant all over the Street. Fear and greed, that's what rules the Street. I think the carcass has been stripped to the bone," said Dave Henderson, a floor trader on the New York Stock Exchange for Raven Securities Corp.

Many investors have waited until the final hour of trading each day this week to hit the "sell" button, so investors appeared uneasy about how the market would look when the closing bell sounds.

The selling can intensify as mutual funds and hedge funds are forced to raise cash to meet investors' "sell" orders and as nervous investors otherwise shy from placing bets in such a jittery market. In addition, Fridays are particularly troublesome as so much news that affects the markets - from bankruptcies to bailouts - has arrived in recent weekends.

In the final hour of trading, the Dow rose 74.31, or 0.87%, to 8 653.50. At its low point Friday, the Dow was down 696 at 7 882.51.

- Sapa-AP