NEW YORK - Stocks turned lower in late trading today as lingering concerns about leading technology companies sapped the market's modest gains. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 20.65 to close at 10,866.74. Dow off 20.65
Associated PressBroader stock indicators, particularly the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index, were lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 5.40 to 1,338.83 and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 35.17 to 2,542.23.
Advancers beat decliners by a 7-to-5 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,732 up, 1,205 down and 581 unchanged. NYSE volume was 749.53 million shares vs. 772.76 million yesterday.
The NYSE composite index fell 0.12 to 639.42. But the American Stock Exchange composite index eked out a 3.67 gain to 792.03 and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 1.88 to 448.02.
The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond fell 11/32 point, or $3.44 cents per $1,000 security, to 91 28/32. That left its yield at 5.83 percent, up from 5.80 percent yesterday.
Mergers set the stage for some gains today. Healtheon Corp. soared for a second straight session as it announced it will merge with WebMD Inc. in a $7.8 billion stock swap to create an Internet-based health care services company.
For several days, stocks have traded in a narrow band as investors struggled to determine whether a recent rise in inflation will prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in an effort to slow the runaway economy. Today, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that manufacturing growth eased slightly in April, which calmed an anxious market and set the stage for some mild, broad-based gains.