Stocks fell again yesterday in jittery trading dominated by concerns about today's Federal Reserve meeting and the government's legal assault on Microsoft.

The Dow Jones industrial average briefly slipped just below 9,000 with a 96-point loss before closing at 9,050, a loss of 45 points, or 0.5 percent, on the day. It was the third straight losing session for the Dow, which now sits about 160 points below Wednesday's record-high of 9,211.84.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by more than a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 946 up, 2,076 down and 494 unchanged.

The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 2.91 to 1,105.82, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 15.17 to 1,831.60.

The NYSE composite index fell 2.32 to 572.08, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 4.73 to 732.36.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 4.83 to 467.61.