Stocks rose in New York yesterday as investors brushed off concerns about rising inflation and turned their focus towards the positive earnings news expected next week.

At the close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones was up 112.71, or 1.1 per cent, at 10,649.76. For the week, the blue-chip index gained more than 376 points, its biggest weekly rise since early July.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a by a narrow margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,442 up, 1,549 down and 520 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 898.35 million shares, against 801.84 million in the previous session.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 0.83 at 427.28.

Stocks seesawed in the morning after the Labour Department reported that employers cut their payrolls by 8,000 jobs in September, the first drop since January 1996. Analysts had expected companies to add 220,000 jobs. The decline was mostly attributed to Hurricane Floyd, which cut into hiring at companies along the East Coast. Stocks turned higher in the afternoon.