US stocks were mostly higher yesterday, struggling to regain momentum against the persistent jitters in the bond market, where long term interest rates continue to edge toward unsettling levels.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 84.66 points to close at 6,740.74, rallying into the close to snap a five session losing streak that had sliced 228 points off the barometer of 30 big US companies.

Broader measures were mostly higher.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a narrow margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,265 up, 1,195 down and 862 unchanged.

NYSE volume totalled 496.35 million shares against 526.43 million in the previous session.

The Standard and Poor's 500 stock list rose 7.48 to 772.50, and the NYSE's composite index rose 3.23 to 406.09.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.82 to 1,355.19, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 0.40 to 587.67.