The Dow gained 4.62 points to close at 6,489.02, rebounding in the last half hour from a 34-point dip after surrendering a 24-point morning advance. Last week, the blue-chip barometer tacked on nearly 180 points, including a 126-point gain on Thursday.
Decliners outnumbered advancers by nearly a 5-to-4 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,129 up, 1,397 down down and 803 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 339.94 million shares vs. 650.09 million Friday.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 1.94 to 746.93, and the NYSE's composite index fell 0.82 to 393.29. The Nasdaq composite index fell 9.08 to 1,279.48, and the American Stock Exchange index fell 1.03 to 580.98.
"The Nasdaq continues to endure a bit of corrective profit-taking," said Scott Bleier, chief investment strategist at the New York investment firm Prime Charter.
Stocks drew some early support from the bond market, where prices improved and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond - a key determinant of corporate and consumer borrowing costs - fell to 6.58 percent, down from late Friday's 6.60 percent.
There was little market reaction to a report showing that personal incomes rebounded in November and consumer spending showed surprising strength at the start of the Christmas sales season.
The Commerce Department reported that personal incomes rose 0.5 percent last month after being flat in October. It was the best showing since back-to-back gains of 0.6 percent in August and September.
Consumer spending was up 0.5 percent in November. While that was down from a 0.7 percent gain in October, it was still slightly better than the 0.4 percent rise many analysts had been expecting.