By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks mostly rose Thursday as Europe's situation appeared less dire after Italy's bond auction went better than expected. "Today we woke up and found the world didn't come to an end, and today we know who the prime minister of Greece is, and soon we hope to know who the prime minister of Italy is," said Art Hogan, head of product strategy, equity research at Lazard Capital Markets. "And we know it is costing Italy less than 7% to borrow money for less than 10 years. And we'll see that 6% go to 5% pretty quickly if they pick a prime minister," Hogan added. Scaling back dramatically from a triple-digit rise at the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was lately up 36.37 points to 11,817.31. The S&P 500 (SPX) rose 1.50 points to 1,230.75. Erasing its gains, the Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) fell 14.11 points to 2,607.56. "It looks like some of the momentum stocks like Apple [Inc.] (AAPL) and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters [Inc.] (GMCR) are taking it on the chin," said Hogan of the Nasdaq's decline. For every stock falling, nearly two gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 188 million shares traded as of 10:40 a.m. Eastern.
