TECHNOLOGY stocks led a second day of declines on Wall Street as investors backed off the record breaking gains of the past two weeks.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 42.07 to close at 7,718.71.
Analysts said the decline, following a drop in Tuesday's Dow, marked the predictable end of a record breaking streak.
Declining issues narrowly outnumbered advances on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,317 down, 1,218 up and 848 unchanged.
NYSE volume totalled 491.68 million shares, against 542.97 million in the previous session.
The Standard and Poor's 500 list fell 5.72 to close at 888.71, snapping an eight session streak of record highs. The NYSE composite index was down 1.68 to 463.41. The Nasdaq composite index fell 10.60 to 1,432.51, ending three consecutive sessions of recordbreaking closes.
Bucking the trend, the American Stock Exchange composite index edged up 0.11 to 625.97.
