Dow off 19.58

NEW YORK -- Stocks closed with mixed results today as investors once again embraced technology stocks while shunning the broader market. Concerns about a third interest rate hike this year held blue-chip stocks lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 19.58 to close at 10,597.74. The blue chip index fell as much as 81 points as trading began and rose as much as 37 points later in the session.

After falling yesterday, the Nasdaq composite index set its eighth record in nine sessions, rising 30.91 to 3,155.95. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 8.18 to 1,373.46.

Decliners beat advancers by an 8-to-7 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,618 down, 1,402 up and 522 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 986.22 million shares vs. 851.32 million yesterday.

The NYSE composite index gained 3.03 to 629.02; the American Stock Exchange index rose 3.50 to 815.81; and the Russell 2000 index rose 2.44 to 448.72.

Thirty-year Treasury bond prices fell 1/4 point, or $2.50 per $1,000 face amount; its yields rose 2 basis points to 6.07 percent. Two-year yields climbed 4 basis points to 5.75 percent.

Stocks fell steeply at the opening bell following a Labor Department report that showed prices at the wholesale level fell 0.1 percent in October as the cost of energy and food dropped sharply.

However, not counting the volatile energy and food categories, the "core" rate of inflation at the wholesale level rose a stronger-than-expected 0.3 percent in October, the second consecutive monthly increase.

Many analysts were anticipating a 0.1 percent increase in the core rate.