WALL Street stocks turned mostly lower late in the session as interest rates rose again in the bond market amid more worrisome indications on inflation.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 66.20 points to close at 6,858.72, after meandering in a tight range through much of the day.
Broader stock measures ended mixed, with blue-chip dominated indexes suffering the most damage in the late pullback.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a five-to-four margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,427 up, 1,126 down and 785 unchanged.
NYSE volume totalled 536.22 million shares, against 432.68 million in the previous session.
The Standard and Poor's 500-stock list fell 4.36 to 790.95, and the NYSE composite index fell 1.66 to 415.68.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 6.20 to 1,317.38, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 2.22 to 597.04.
