Wall Street extended its February rally today, growing confident that interest rates will hold steady even as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke tempered his forecast of slowly cooling growth and inflation with a reminder that price pressures remain a concern.

Wall Street pared an earlier advance to end mixed today as investors’ persistent concerns about interest rates and the economy countered relief over an upbeat homebuilding report.

Several new variants of a computer worm emerged today to attack corporate networks running the Windows 2000 operating system, just a week after Microsoft Corp. warned of the security flaw.

Stocks slumped in the United States today as the Bush administration said the country’s economy would likely grow at a slower pace than forecast six months ago – an assessment that eclipsed positive corporate news and lower oil prices.

Investors all but ignored another substantial retreat in oil prices today, leaving stocks mixed in a listless and lightly traded session.

A UN-appointed expert said yesterday that he has warned Caterpillar Inc. that Israel’s use of bulldozers to destroy West Bank orchards could make the company an accomplice in what he called the violation of basic human rights of the Palestinians.

A larger-than-expected drop in durable goods orders intensified Wall Street’s concerns about the US economy today and sent stocks sliding for the second day in a row. Technology issues again suffered the largest declines.