Stocks higher in late rally

NEW YORK (AP) - A late afternoon rally pushed the stock market higher for only the second day this month. Major indexes spent most of Monday lower as investors worried that Greece could be edging closer to default.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note reached another record low as investors piled into U.S. government debt on fears that Europe's debt crisis could spread. The euro fell to a seven-month low against the dollar.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 68.99 points, or 0.6 percent, to close at 11,061.12. All of the gains came in the last 10 minutes of trading. The Dow had been down as many as 167 points shortly after 2 p.m. Traders said a combination of technical factors and reports that China was buying Italian government bonds triggered the late spurt of buying.

The S&P 500 index rose 8.04, or 0.7 percent, to 1,162.27. It had dropped as many as 18 points. Technology stocks fared better than the overall market following news of a semiconductor deal. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 27.10 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,495.09.

Worries over Europe's debt crisis drove traders into Treasurys, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 1.87 percent, the lowest since the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis began keeping daily records in 1962.

During the financial crisis in late 2008, the 10-year yield hit a low of 2.05 percent.