WALL Street stocks fell modestly in sluggish trading amid growing worries about technology sector profits and potential market jolts from tomorrow's key employment report.

Big name technology shares, besieged by a series of gloomy profit forecasts, started the day higher, but faltered in the afternoon. With most investors looking ahead to tomorrow's report on payroll and wage levels, a major factor behind inflation, trading was fairly hesitant.

There was limited reaction to this morning's news that factory orders rebounded a bigger than expected 1.2 per cent in April. The data compounded concerns over a report two days ago showing that manufacturing activity was surprisingly robust last month.

Investors have been counting on a moderating trend in the economy to temper inflationary pressures and keep the Federal Reserve from slowing things down with another increase in the central bank's lending rates.