The Dow Jones industrial average, which over the past two sessions shed about 100 points of its nearly 500-point November gain. gained 14.16 to close at 6,437.10.
Decliners led advancers by a slim margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,229 up, 1,291 down and 815 unchanged. NYSE volume was 483.12 million shares vs. 493.70 million yesterday.
Broad-market measures were mixed, but little changed, with smaller and more speculative shares again showing strength as traders looked for ways to reinvest profits from blue chips.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 0.72 to 744.38, and the NYSE's composite index fell 0.48 to 392.75. The Nasdaq composite rose 3.08 to 1,300.10, just 0.27 shy of Tuesday's record close. The American Stock Exchange's index rose 1.04 to 590.03.
Although the two-day tide of profit-taking slowed for stocks, bonds fell sharply again this morning as investors continued to lock in gains on the Treasury market's broad advance in recent months.
As bond prices fell, the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond - a key determinant of corporate and consumer borrowing costs - shot up to 6.50 percent from late yesterday's 6.39 percent.
There was limited market reaction to the day's economic news. The Labor Department reported that workplace productivity fell 0.3 percent at an annual rate in the third quarter, far weaker than the 0.2 percent estimated gain reported last month.