Stocks pulled back slightly in New York yesterday, halting a modest three-session recovery from the steep downturn of recent weeks.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished 23.17 points - or 0.2 per cent - lower at 8,574.85 despite overcoming an early 54point drop and gaining as much as 37 points during the afternoon.

Most popular indexes also suffered minor losses, with a fairly solid showing by the blue chips masking a weak day for smaller-company shares.

The Dow, which had gained 110 points in the prior three sessions after tumbling 299 points in last Tuesday's selloff, is now more than 750 points from the record of 9,337.97 set less than a month ago on July 17th.

There were no major reports released yesterday to further elaborate on the recent slowdown in the US economy, which continues to be hurt by the fiscal turmoil in Asia.