Stocks edged lower near the close yesterday as investors turned cautious before a torrent of company profit reports that will determine if the market's sudden rebound was justified.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average finished 6.73 points lower at 9,085.04. An afternoon gain of 59 points briefly put the Dow at 9,150 and just a chip shot away from May 13th's closing record of 9,211.84.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a narrow margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,578 up, 1,484 down and 471 unchanged.

NYSE volume totalled 623.47 million shares up sharply from Monday's tally of 513.23.

The NYSE composite index fell 1.06 at 589.76 after flirting with a third straight record high. The American Stock Exchange composite index rose 2.84 to 727.96.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 0.93 to 459.04.