The Dow industrials recovered a bit from a 50-point slide, closing down 34.93 points at 3,962.63.

Today it closed down 7 points, or about 15 percent.

The Standard & Poor's index also gained near the end, closing down 3.89 points, to 785.77.

After its recent spectacular ascent, the average itself paused for breath yesterday, closing down 11.16 points, at 2,669.32.

The Dow ended lower yesterday for the fourth consecutive session, closing down 43.36 points at 5,420.95.

But the Nikkei rebounded to close down 159.81 points, or 0.78 percent, at 20,341.39.

The Nikkei index of 225 issues tumbled throughout the afternoon to close down 614.01 points, or 3.4 percent, to 17,236.65.

The Dow was up as much as 30 points before closing down 12.80 points at 4,195.38.

The Dow closed down 45.06 points, or six-tenths of 1 percent, at 7,782.37.

The Dow closed down 41.97 points, or five-tenths of 1 percent, at 7,640,25.