NEW YORK -- Stocks fell modestly today despite an improvement in interest rates, which had risen sharply the past two days amid renewed inflation concerns. Dow slides 45.59
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 45.59 points to close at 8,539.24, halving a 90-point afternoon loss, but halting a five-session streak of record highs.
Decliners led advancers by a 7-to-5 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,233 up, 1,737 down and 496 unchanged. NYSE volume was 642.43 million shares vs. 609.14 million yesterday.
Most broad-market indicators also suffered modest losses, although the technology-heavy Nasdaq market posted a small gain as Dell Computer Corp. surged 6 percent after two sessions of profit-taking in that high-flying issue.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock list fell 4.69 to close at 1,047.33, and the NYSE composite index lost 2.43 to 544.46. Both measures had closed at record highs yesterday.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 2.56 to 1,759.70. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 0.29 to 462.13, but the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 0.21 to 709.18.
The losses in stocks came despite a strong bond market, where a key long-term interest rate edged down toward 6 percent after jumping over that mark for the first time since December on Monday.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond was up 7/16 point, or $4.27 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield fell to 6.04 percent from 6.07 percent late yesterday.
Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average fell 0.4 percent, Frankfurt's DAX index fell 1.0 percent and London's FTSE 100 fell 1.3 percent.