Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
NEW YORK -- Stocks finished mixed today, as investors sold blue chips after three straight winning sessions and bought some beaten-down tech issues. Dow sinks 109
Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 109.14 to 11,067.00, wiping out much of the Dow's 148-point surge yesterday.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 7.13 to close at 1,484.43 today. But the Nasdaq composite index rose 1.97 to 3,851.66.
Decliners led advancers by a 7-to-5 margin with 1,690 down, 1,161 up and 483 unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was 895.93 million shares vs. 785.89 million yesterday. The NYSE composite index slipped 4.04 to 668.01; the American Stock Exchange composite index dropped 16.09 to 912.78; and the Russell 2000 index fell 4.55 to 509.93. The Treasury's 30-year bond price was down 1/4 point, or $2.50 per $1,000 in face value; its yield rose to 5.72 percent from 5.69 percent yesterday.
Analysts said profit-taking was largely responsible for Dow's drop. The Dow had risen recently amid optimism that the Federal Reserve would leave interest rates unchanged at its meeting next Tuesday. "There's profit-taking on the Dow and a resurgence in the tech sector due to relative opportunities in semiconductors, which have been devastated in the past month," said equity analyst Barry Hyman.
On the economic front, the Fed said industrial production rose 0.4 percent in July, in line with expectations. The report contained little sign of inflation, which should make investors more confident the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged.