NEW YORK - Wall Street seesawed Wednesday as investors weighed signs of a worsening housing market and lending climate against strong earnings from Amazon.com Inc. and Boeing Co.

The stock market  - lurching up, down, and then up again - still appeared jittery after Tuesday's 226-point tumble in the Dow Jones industrial average fueled in part by a disappointing profit and forecast from mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

The National Association of Realtors on Wednesday confirmed that the housing market is far from recovery when it reported that sales of existing homes dropped 3.8 percent in June to the slowest rate in more than 4 years. The figure was worse than analysts expected, and followed data from the Mortgage Bankers Association showing mortgage applications fell for the first time in four weeks to a five-month low.

Some market watchers worry that deteriorating lending conditions will cork this year's huge stream of dealmaking. Buyouts usually involve taking on debt, and Wednesday, the banks raising funds for the turnaround of Chrysler Group had to postpone a $12 billion debt offer after investors balked at the deal's terms, according to people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly. Still, the acquisitions keep coming: Siemens AG Wednesday said it will sell its VDO auto parts unit to Germany's Continental AG in a $15.67 billion deal.

The market will likely remain rocky as Wall Street tries to assess whether problems involving risky home lending will hurt the broader economy.

"It's an open-ended unknown, and that's the problem," said Richard E. Cripps, chief market strategist for St. Louis-based broker Stifel Nicolaus. He added, though, the stock market's volatility is not necessarily a bad thing. "It's shaking a tree, and it's shaking out the bad apples, shaking out investors' concerns. The overall picture is pretty constructive for equities."

In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 52.76, or 0.38 percent, to 13,769.71, after trading up more than 100 points and then down more than 30.

Broader stock indicators also rose in wobbly trading. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5.47, or 0.36 percent, at 1,516.51, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 7.41, or 0.28 percent, to 2,647.27.

Treasury bonds rose after the weak housing data prompted investors to buy safe government assets. As bond prices rose, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.91 percent from 4.95 percent late Tuesday.

The dollar rose against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose 84 cents to $74.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, bouncing back from two straight days of steep declines. The U.S. government on Wednesday reported that crude oil supplies fell and gasoline stockpiles rose last week, as expected.

Amazon.com Inc. surged $17.48, or 25 percent, to $86.73, after the Web retailer said its second-quarter profit more than tripled on strong sales of books, music and electronics worldwide.

Boeing Co., one of the 30 Dow components, rose $3.56, or 3.4 percent, to $107.36. It posted a $1.1 billion profit in the second quarter, up from a year-ago loss, as it gets closer to overtaking its European rival Airbus in deliveries.

Merck & Co., another Dow company, also advanced $1.61, or 3.1 percent, to $53.33 after agreeing to buy NovaCardia Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on cardiovascular diseases.

Though investors are mainly focused this week on corporate earnings and companies' forecasts for the rest of the year, they will also be reading the Federal Reserve's Beige Book later Wednesday. The report details economic conditions in various parts of the country.

Declining issues outnumbered advancer by about 5 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 951.7 million shares.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 2.19, or 0.27 percent, to 809.67.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.80 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.30 percent, Germany's DAX index was down 0.49 percent, and France's CAC-40 was down 0.28 percent.

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