Stocks gave up an early advance and finished lower in New York yesterday as rising bond yields drew investors' attention.

The Dow Jones fell 61.12, or 0.5 per cent, to close at 11,511.08. Earlier in the session, the Dow had risen as much as 90 points.

Shares of Internet companies led the Nasdaq composite index into a steep decline, resulting in a loss of 127.04 to 3,922.63. The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 19.01 to 1,438.59 and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 9.28 to 492.61.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a two-to-one margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,091 down, 1,028 up and 436 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 1.25 billion shares, against 1.03 billion in the previous session.

Internet companies, which buoyed the market on Monday in response to America Online's deal to buy Time Warner, were mostly lower as investors sold some shares to capture profits.