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NEW YORK — Bargain hunters saved the market from another big tech selloff Monday, rescuing the Dow Jones industrials and the Nasdaq composite index from losses of more than 100 points each in the last hour of trading. 

Stocks still finished lower, because Wall Street is waiting to see how much of a negative effect the slowing economy has had on earnings. 

Discounted prices prompted investors to do some last-minute buying Monday. 

“Looks like the sellers ran out of gas,” said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst for Jefferies & Co. “It’s hard to say who flipped on the ‘buy’ sign ... but we’ll take it.” 

With stocks continuing their slide despite last week’s interest rate cut, investors were anxiously looking for a bottom. Hogan said the market might be close, and theorized that upcoming earnings reports might not be as bad as expected, which could mean a rally in deeply depressed stocks. 

“It’s probably going to be a bit better than the market has priced in,” Hogan said of fourth quarter earnings, which are starting to trickle in this week. “I think we have overdone (the selling) a bit.” 

Since the new year began, the market has continued to fall on Wall Street’s fears about falling profits and the slowing economy. The one exception was Wednesday, when the Dow and Nasdaq soared more than 300 points each after the Fed’s rate cut – but investors quickly realized it will take time for earnings and the economy to benefit from lower interest rates and so they resumed selling. 

— The Associated Press 

Still, stocks might rally longer if upcoming earnings beat analysts’ expectations or if the market can shake off disappointing results, said Ricky Harrington, technical analyst for Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, N.C. 

After nearly five months on a downturn, “that could be a key change in character in the market,” Harrington said. 

The first big day of tech earnings comes Wednesday when Motorola and Yahoo! are due to report results. 

On Monday, investors seemed guarded, sending Yahoo skidding $1.31 to $27.19. But Motorola, which had fallen earlier, closed up 56 cents at $21.75. 

Before turning into bargain hunters, investors directed their ire at technology in general, because the sector stands to have the weakest profits. 

Companies that supply the PC industry also were hurt but rebounded somewhat. Microsoft lost 19 cents to finish at $48.94, while Intel was down 13 cents at $31.94. Both are Dow components. 

Blue chip advances were spread across sectors with no clear leader. Coca-Cola rose 94 cents to $58.63, and Procter & Gamble climbed $1.63 to $76.56. 

But shares of retailers, many of which reported they had the bleakest holiday shopping season in years, were down. Best Buy fell sharply, down $2.38 at $37.56. 

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 13 to 11 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume was 1.33 billion, down from 1.69 billion on Friday. 

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks the performance of smaller company stocks, was down 1.50 at 461.64. 

Overseas markets were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.3 percent, and Germany’s DAX index inched up 0.2 percent. But Britain’s FT-SE 100 slipped 0.8 percent, and France’s CAC-40 lost 0.4 percent.