Stocks fell yesterday in a session of profit taking following this week's run into the record books.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended 78.71 points lower at 9,064.62, pulling back from Tuesday's high of 9,184.94. In the broad market, declining issues beat advances 20 to 8 on active volume of 630 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The technology-heavy Nasdaq index fell 12.45 points to 1,868.94 after running up Wednesday to a high of 1,917.61.

The dollar was mixed, advancing against the yen in the absence of intervention by the Bank of Japan.

It fetched 1.7905 deutschmarks compared to DM1.7985 on Thursday; 131.25 yen compared to 130.06; 1.4910 Swiss francs compared to 1.4895; 6.0055 French francs compared to 6.0285; and 0.5996 pound sterling compared to 0.6006.