WALL Street stocks ended lower after swinging widely throughout the session - falling as investors took profits, and then rallying as bargain-hunters began buying.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 20.59 points to close at 5485.62.
The Dow average traded in a 68-point range all day, hopping back and forth between the positive and negative camps.
Traders were hard-pressed to find much of a pattern in the day's activity, except that it was concentrated in big-capitalisation stocks.
Declines led advances by eight to five on the New York Stock Exchange, with 903 up, 1469 down and 725 static.
Big Board volume totalled 448.21 million shares, against 447 million on Wednesday.
The NYSE's composite index fell 1.82 to 342.80. The Standard and Poor's 500-stock index fell 4.31 to 640.44.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 5.31 to 1102.24.
