NEW YORK — A stock drop is never reassuring — except when it could have been worse.

The Dow Jones industrial average shed more than 100 points, or 1.5 percent yesterday. But it also held on almost 300 of the 498 points it racked up a day earlier.

"We'll take that trading pattern any time," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. He said he came into work anticipating the Dow to drop as much as 2 percent yesterday after the index jumped 6.8 percent Monday — its biggest gain since late October.