Investors cooled their buying of stocks and commodities, pausing from a surge that's carried major stock indexes to their highest levels in more than a year.
Stocks mostly fell Tuesday, a day after the Dow Jones industrials shot up 200 points for the second time in three days. Following a recent pattern, the stock market on Monday took its cue from the dollar, driving higher as the dollar weakened.
A modest rebound in the dollar Tuesday weighed on stocks.
On Tuesday, investors increased their buying of safe-haven assets like the dollar and Treasurys. The ICE Futures US dollar index, which measures the dollar against other currencies, crept up less than 0.1 percent.
"People are reaching for a little less risk today after we've had such a run," said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management.
Record-low interest rates in the U.S. and the resulting slide in the dollar have been major forces behind the surge in stocks over the past several months. A weaker dollar allows investors to borrow money cheaply, while the low interest rates also encourage them to hold any assets other than low-yielding cash, such as stocks, commodities and bonds.
The falling dollar has enabled many investors to look past some of the economy's persistent trouble spots, including unemployment. The jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent in October, the highest level in 26 years.
A number of market watchers still believe that the recent upsurge in stocks has been overdone given the weaknesses that remain in the economy, such as the large amounts of souring loans on banks' balance sheets.
In midday trading, the Dow slipped 9.37, or 0.1 percent, to 10,217.57. On Monday the Dow closed at its highest level since October 2008.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.19, or 0.3 percent, to 1,089.89, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 9.18, or 0.4 percent, to 2,144.88.
About two stocks fell for every one that rose on the
New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 434.2 million shares, compared with 443.3 million at the same time on Monday.
Beazer Homes USA rose after the homebuilder turned a fiscal fourth-quarter profit despite a plunge in revenue and said it saw "some moderation" in weak market trends. The stock rose 40 cents, or 8.5 percent, to $5.09.
Bond prices rose, sending yields down, ahead of an auction of 10-year notes. The 10-year yield fell to 3.47 percent from 3.49 percent late Monday.
Light, sweet crude fell 11 cents to $79.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold rose.
In other trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 6.99, or 1.2 percent, to 585.32.
Markets overseas were mixed. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.6 percent. Britain's FTSE, Germany's DAX index and France's CAC-40 each slipped less than 0.1 percent.
