NEW YORK -- Blue-chip stocks escaped with a small gain, but most stocks turned lower today after a morning rally as investors remained skeptical about this week's multinational talks on healing the global economy. Dow up 16.74
The Dow Jones industrial average finished 16.74 points higher at 7,742.98 after shedding an early 154-point gain and briefly dipping into negative territory. The blue-chip index is down 2.09 percent for the year.
Broader stock indicators finished lower despite a morning rally fueled by yesterday's late rebound, big gains on foreign markets, and what seemed to be an encouraging start to the third-quarter reporting period.
The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 3.97 to 984.59, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 25.86 to 1,510.83.
Decliners outnumbered advancers by a 5-to-4 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,341 up, 1,698 down and 485 unchanged.
NYSE volume totaled 835.72 million shares, up from 802.76 million yesterday.
The NYSE composite index fell 0.93 to 491.51, and the American Stock Exchange composite index slipped 0.12 to 593.09.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 4.25 to 332.55.
The 30-year Treasury bond fell 7/32 to 112 9/32, with its yield rising to 4.73 percent.
Aluminum Company of America's profit fell 5 percent compared with the same quarter last year and Motorola Inc. lost $42 million, but both companies beat Wall Street's deflated expectations.
Motorola rose $3.25 to $41.81 after releasing its results late yesterday and Alcoa surged $4.31 to $72.50 as the Dow's biggest gainer.