NEW YORK - A stock market empowered by an emergency interest rate cut tried to find some stability Wednesday, rallying several times before a late-day drop left Wall Street down for the sixth day in a row. Still, the pullback, while fed by comments from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, was milder than the massive declines of earlier in the week.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index, the market measure most closely followed by traders, fell 1.13 percent -- compared with a 3.85 percent slide Monday and a 5.74 percent drop Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrials fell 189 points, a number that, while sizable, was less frightening than the 878 it lost over the first two days the week.

Trading was erratic right from the opening bell, after the Federal Reserve and other leading central banks cut rates in the hope that credit markets would soon relax and that banks would begin lending more freely to businesses and consumers.

The Fed lowered the target for its federal funds rate by a half-point, to 1.5 percent, saying in a prepared statement that the turmoil in financial markets posed a further threat to an already shaky economy; it was joined in the rate cut by the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, the Swedish Riksbank and the Swiss National Bank.

Investors had been hankering for a rate cut, and they were clearly happy with the central banks' actions. However, they were also aware that, in the near term, the credit markets remain tied up because banks are reluctant to lend.

That mix of emotions had the major indexes wavering between gains and losses until Paulson in the late afternoon said financial markets remain severely strained. He also said that it would be several weeks before the government's $700 billion financial rescue plan makes its first purchases of banks' troubled mortgage-backed assets.

Paulson's comments showed how vulnerable the market is, and how it can shoot up or down in minutes. The S&P 500 index, up more than 20 points at 2:35 p.m. CDT, tumbled to a loss of 11 points by the 3 p.m. closing bell.

"Until we have some more confidence here, it's going to be difficult to sustain any rally," said Bill Schultz, chief investment officer at McQueen, Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pa. "Unfortunately, you probably sell the rallies for a little while until we run out of sellers."

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 189.01, or 2 percent, at 9,258.10, after changing direction 36 times.

Broader stock indicators also fell. The S&P 500 index slid 11.29, or 1.13 percent, to 984.94, and the Nasdaq dropped 14.55, or 0.83 percent, to 1,740.33.

With its precipitous drop of the past few weeks, Wall Street is approaching the magnitude of the losses it suffered during the bear market in the early part of this decade.

By the time the Dow reached its low of that market, 7,286.27 on Oct. 9, 2002, it had fallen 37.8 percent from its record high close of 11,722.98, set in January 2000.

The Dow has now fallen about 35 percent from the closing high of 14,164.53, reached a year ago today. This week, the Dow has lost 1,067 points, or 10.3 percent. It has lost 1,592.56, or 14.68 percent, over the past six sessions.

The worries on Wall Street have been exacerbated by the spread of the U.S. credit problems overseas. Several banks in Europe have had to be bailed out, and this week the governments of Germany, Ireland and Greece took steps to guarantee private bank deposits.

David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's, said the heavy losses in stock markets around the world signal that markets are determining that the credit crisis won't likely be resolved soon.

"There was a general disregard for risk going on in financial markets around the world, it wasn't just the U.S.," he said. "Now they're waking up to risk."