NEW YORK - The stock market pulled out of a three-session slide Thursday, encouraged by lower interest rates. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, down 21.47 points in the week's first three sessions, recovered 17.26 to 2,482.17. Advancing issues outnumbered declines by nearly 4-to-3 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks. Volume on the floor of the exchange came to 176.51-million shares, up from 168.83-million in the previous session. Assassination rumor hurts dollar

NEW YORK - A false rumor that President Bush had been shot came from someone trying to ``make a few bucks`` on the stock market, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Thursday. A rumor that Bush had been shot while visiting New York swept U.S. financial markets, prompting the value of the dollar to plunge. The dollar closed at 1.9500 marks, down from 1.9620 marks the day before, and dropped even more against the yen, to 139.10 from 142.65. The assassination story ``is a standard market rumor,`` Fitzwater said. ``Every time we come to New York something like this happens,`` he added with a shrug.

ATLANTA - Georgia Industry and Trade Commissioner George Berry has asked Eastern Airlines to think about moving its headquarters from Miami to Atlanta, home of Eastern's chief rival, Delta Air Lines. Atlanta was Eastern's first operations base and has long been its largest flight hub. Frank Lorenzo, chairman of Eastern's parent firm, Texas Air Corp., did little to quell speculation in Miami that the strike-crippled airline may move. He identified Delta as an arch-rival of what he calls ``the new Eastern`` and said he believed Eastern could compete with Delta in Atlanta.