The Dow Jones industrial average lost 10.77 points to close at 6,813.09, having retreated from a 50-point extension of the blue-chip barometer's 168-point rally over the past two sessions. NYSE volume totaled 574.51 million shares, vs. 520.4 million yesterday.
Advancing issues led decliners by more than a 5-to-4 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,414 up, 1,111 down and 812 unchanged.
Broader measures ended higher, but also gave back much of their early advance, which was spurred by a big drop in interest rates in the bond market.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock list rose 1.99 to 786.16, just 0.07 shy of a record high. The NYSE's composite index rose 0.78 to 411.98, less than a point from a record.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 8.82 to 1,379.84, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 0.11 to 588.77.
Bond prices rose as the yield on 30-year Treasury bonds - a key determinant of borrowing costs - fell from late yesterday's 6.87 percent to 6.79 percent.
Bonds rallied this morning despite a Commerce Department report revealing that the economy grew a sizzling 4.7 percent growth rate in the last quarter of 1996. Analysts had expected fourth-quarter growth of just 3.8 percent in the gross domestic product.
But after investors "dug under the surface of this report they realized that the big leap was due to exports and the domestic economy is actually slowing down," said Alfred E. Goldman, vice president at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis.
The GDP report comes as financial markets scour for signs of economic weakness and low inflation, two factors that could cause the Federal Reserve to hold off on raising interest rates when its policy-making committee meets on Feb. 4.