NEW YORK - Wall Street capped its worst week ever with a wild session Friday that saw the Dow Jones industrials rocket within a 1,000 point range before closing with a relatively mild loss and the Nasdaq composite index end with a modest advance. Investors were still agonizing over frozen credit markets, but seven days of massive losses made many stocks tempting for traders looking for bargains.

The Dow lost 128 points, giving the blue chips an eight-day loss of just under 2,400. The average had its worst week on record in both point and percentage terms, as did the Standard & Poor's 500 index, the indicator most watched by market professionals.

But there were signs Friday that some investors might believe the market was at or near a bottom. Just one day earlier, selling accelerated in the last hour of trading, giving the Dow a loss of 678 points, as many market players fled, while Friday, many people were clearly buying. And the Russell 2000 index, which tracks the movements of smaller company stocks, had a 4.66 percent gain Friday; small-cap stocks are often first on investors' shopping lists when they think a market turnaround is at hand.

"Nobody wants to miss the bottom," said Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors in Rochester, N.Y., who said of the Dow's performance, "I view it as a victory that we only finished down 100."

Some investors may have been placing bets ahead of the weekend meeting of officials from the Group of Seven nations, who gathered in Washington to discuss the economic meltdown. One of the potential remedies expected to be reviewed at the meeting is for governments to guarantee lending among banks.

Still, Friday's widely mixed finish was proof that Wall Street remains deeply troubled, and trading was likely to remain volatile.

"Fear has been running rampant all over the Street. Fear and greed, that's what rules the Street. I think the carcass has been stripped to the bone," said Dave Henderson, a floor trader on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Dow fell 1.49 percent to 8,451.49. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 10.70 or 1.18 percent, to 899.22, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 4.39, or 0.27 percent, to 1,649.51.

A stream of selling forced exchanges in Austria, Russia and Indonesia to suspend trading, and those that remained opened were hammered. The rout in Australian markets caused traders there to call it "Black Friday."

European stocks sank Friday, with Britain's FTSE-100 falling 8.85 percent, Germany's DAX declining 7.01 percent, and France's CAC-40 ending down 7.73 percent.

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.