US stocks dropped today as concerns about Latin America's economic recovery muted investor optimism about second-quarter earnings reports.

At the close on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 25.96 at to 11,175.02 after having fallen as much as 114 points in early trading. The Dow's loss came after the blue chips had achieved new closing highs in three of the past four sessions.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 4-to-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,281 up, 1,731 down and 562 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 733.8 million shares, against 668.9 million in the previous session.

Broader stock indicators also declined. The Nasdaq composite index fell 24.48 to 2,765.45 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 7.31 to 1,391.79, according to preliminary calculations. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies slipped 1.19 to 458.11.