NEW YORK -- Financial stocks led the market lower today as investors locked in some gains from a monthlong rebound. Dow sags 77.5
The Dow Jones industrial average finished 77.50 points lower at 8,897.96 after recovering from a 130-point slide. The Dow, which hadn't suffered a loss in the prior eight sessions, briefly bobbed to within 15 points of 9,000 during the first minutes of trading.
Most broader stock indicators also gave back some of last week's gains, which pushed the market to highest level since late July.
Before today's profit-taking, the Dow had bounced about 1,500 points, or 20 percent, since it slid below 7,500 on Oct. 8. Today's retreat marked only the fifth losing session for the Dow since the market turnaround began that day. And thanks to the partial recovery, the Dow still hasn't suffered a 100-point loss since Oct. 1.
Decliners led advancers by a 7-to-4 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,109 up, 1,932 down and 492 unchanged. NYSE volume was 590.35 million shares, vs. 679.93 million Friday.
The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 10.81 to 1,130.20, but the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 4.49 to 1,861.05. The NYSE composite index fell 5.96 to 559.14, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 4.69 to 666.11. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 1.89 to 398.43.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond was up 13/8 point, or $13.75 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield dropped to 5.29 percent from 5.38 percent late Friday.
Japan's Nikkei index rose 0.5 percent. Germany's DAX index fell 1.4 percent and Britain's FT-SE 100 fell 1.0 percent.