NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks on Friday afternoon rallied off their earlier lows to rise briefly into positive territory, amid reports that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke offered use of the central bank's discount window to troubled mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. After a decline of more than 250 points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.47% was more recently down 57.32 points at 11,171.7. The S&P 500 SPX, -0.48% fell 2.55 points to 1,250.84, while the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.29% was off 1.81 points at 2,256.04.