Stocks closed mostly lower on Wall Street today as an earnings warning from Gillette put the brakes on Monday's rally.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 43.84 points - or by 0.4 per cent - to close at 9,963.49. The index shifted between the black and the red for much of the session, rising as much as 23 points in choppy trading.
Declining issues outnumbered those rising by three to two on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,789 down, 1,193 up and 594 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 791 million shares, against 694.42 million in the previous session.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 1.21 to 401.08.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index - which rose 3.1 to 2,563.16 - was the brightest spot in the market for much of the session before giving up most of its gains in the last hour of trading.
