Stocks fell in New York, but only modestly, as a profit warning by Hewlett Packard pulled the Dow Jones industrial average down from Wednesday's record high, but failed to rattle the market.

The Dow fell 39.61 points - or 0.4 per cent - to 9,172.23 after recovering from an opening plunge of nearly 100 points. Hewlett Packard tumbled 14 per cent following Wednesday's warning that the computer and printer maker's profits have been hurt by price wars and the economic weakness in Asia.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a seven-to-five margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,242 up, 1,719 down and 579 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 575.24 million shares, against 599.28 million in the previous session. The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 1.49 to 1,117.37 and the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.78 to 1,865.40. The NYSE composite index fell 0.89 to 578.31.