NEW YORK - Stocks fluctuated in and out of positive territory Wednesday a day after a steep sell-off and as investors digested Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s plans to try to sell a majority stake in its investment management business and spin off its troubled mortgage assets.

Unease about the No. 4 U.S. securities firm touched off heavy selling across much of the stock market Tuesday as investors worried that Lehman had few options to raise capital. The already beaten down stock lost nearly half its value Tuesday as investors grew fearful that the company would succumb to soured mortgage debt and other financial difficulties.

Bargain-seeking investors often pick through the detritus left by big pullbacks so some buying wasn't surprising Wednesday. Lehman's announcement that it is trying to hammer out an agreement to sell a majority stake in its prized investment management arm and spin off a real estate unit didn't appear to mollify all of investors concerns.

Lehman shares slipped 35 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $7.44 after tumbling 45 percent Tuesday.

"They're trying to buy time but it's very dangerous on Wall Street to buy time. You need to be able to do business," Axel Merk, portfolio manager at Merk Funds, said of Lehman's plans. "I don't think we're at the end of the financial problems in the markets."

In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 2.85, or 0.03 percent, to 11,227.88.

Broader stock indicators traded mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.26, or 0.02 percent, to 1,224.25, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 2.28, or 0.10 percent, to 2,212.09.

The Dow fell 2.4 percent Tuesday, essentially erasing big gains logged Monday, while the S&P 500 fell 3.4 percent and the Nasdaq composite index lost 2.6 percent.

Bond prices slipped after a run-up Wednesday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.61 percent from 3.59 percent late Tuesday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Wall Street has grappled with intractable worries about the financial sector since the near-collapse and subsequent sale of Bear Stearns Cos. in March. Banks such as Lehman have struggled in the past year with unwieldy amounts of mortgage-backed securities and other risky investments on their books that have plunged in value.

Many Wall Street observers contend the stock market will not be able to carve out a sustained recovery until investors can determine the scale of losses in the financial sector. Already global banks have written off more than $300 billion in bad investments.

Beyond the financial sector investors examined oil. Light, sweet crude fell 65 cents to $102.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after OPEC indicated it could cut more than 500,000 barrels a day of production. On Tuesday, oil settled at the lowest level since April 1.

Declining issues narrowly outnumbered advancers on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 404.9 million shares.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 1.34, or 0.19 percent, to 708.63.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.44 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.71 percent, Germany's DAX index declined 0.26 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.06 percent.

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