NEW YORK -- Stocks retreated today in uneventful trading as investors nibbled away at some of their big gains from the past month. Dow loses 40
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 40.10 points to close at 8,370.10, extending a modest pullback from last Wednesday's record close of 8,451.06.
Decliners led advancers by a 3-to-2 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,169 up, 1,751 down and 564 unchanged. NYSE volume was 589.29 million shares vs. 549.96 million yesterday.
Broad-market indexes, several of which set new highs yesterday, also slumped as interest rates rose in the bond market despite another impressive reading on inflation.
The Labor Department reported that a big drop in energy prices helped keep an overall measure of consumer prices unchanged in January, the first month without inflation in four years.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 7.58 to close at 1,030.56, and the NYSE composite index lost 3.59 to 534.82. Both measures closed at record highs yesterday.
The Nasdaq composite index, which yesterday set a new high for the first time since before the Asia-induced selloff in late October, fell 13.05 to 1,738.71.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 1.98 to 454.31, and the American Stock Exchange composite index lost 1.58 to close at 687.50.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond tumbled 27/32 point, or $8.44 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield rose to 5.96 percent from 5.90 percent late yesterday. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average fell 2.48 percent.