Oil stocks barely kept the Dow aloft in New York while the broad market sagged for a fourth straight session amid a flurry of profit-taking. The Dow Jones industrial average bobbed higher just before the close, ending a three-day losing streak, but rose just 5.92 points to 8,829.74 despite gaining as much as 84 in the morning.
Most broad-market measures extended a week-long retreat that has been tame compared with the gains of the past month. This week's downturn comes as investors wait to see if Federal Reserve officials will cut interest rates when they meet on Tuesday.
Today's blue-chip advance fizzled despite some big gains from the oil group, which rallied as crude prices rose in reaction to the latest UN-Iraqi standoff. Among the Dow-30, Chevron and Exxon rose sharply.
The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 2.80 to 1,118.17, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 11.05 to 1,851.06. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a five-to-four margin on the New York stock exchange, with 1,350 up, 1,677 down and 498 unchanged.
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