Oct. 15--Shares of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. finished the day up slightly, despite more news of credit tightening and modest drops across the nation's major stock indexes.

Amid reports that it continues to explore a merger with Chrysler LLC, shares of GM opened Tuesday trading at $7.94 -- $1.43 higher than Monday's close of $6.51 -- before falling to a low of $6.01 before recovering in the last hour of trading.

Ford stock followed a similar, if less severe, trading path Tuesday. Ford shares opened at $2.97, 58 cents higher than the Monday close of $2.39. They rallied at the end to close at $2.45, up 6 cents, or 2.5 percent.

Analysts blamed the overall drop in the markets -- one day after the biggest rally since the 1930s -- on the worsening outlook for third-quarter earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 76.62 points, or 0.8 percent, at 9,310.99. The NYSE Composite Index finished down 20.4 points, or 0.3 percent.

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