NEW YORK -- The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled late today amid concerns that a new agreement by the world's top petroleum exporters to boost oil prices will aggravate inflation and trim corporate profits. Dow drops 90 on oil news
The Dow fell 90.18 points to close at 8,816.25. It was the first losing day for the blue-chip index following last week's 300-point gain in five-straight record sessions.
Decliners led advancers by a 7-to-6 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,402 up, 1,633 down and 466 unchanged. NYSE volume was 628.81 million shares vs. 709.75 million Friday.
Except for the Nasdaq composite, broad-market indexes also fell in late trading, coming off their record-setting afternoon highs.
The Standard & Poor's 500 list fell 3.61 to 1,095.55, and the NYSE composite index fell 2.07 to 570.54. The Nasdaq composite index rose 3.35 to 1,792.51, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 7.48 to 735.27. The Russell 200 index lost 0.29 to end at 473.96.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond was up 1/32 point, or 32-1/2 cents per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield was unchanged at 5.88 percent.
With no new economic news released today, investors focused on rising oil prices. World oil prices collapsed this winter, after OPEC agreed in November to increase its stated output ceiling by 10 percent. But many leading oil exporters, including Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico, now say that they will reduce oil production in an effort to lift prices again.
That hurt stocks today as investors feared that higher prices would aggravate inflation and hurt corporate earnings by raising manufacturers' costs for fuel.