US stocks dip

Stocks closed lower in New York today as markets followed what has become a pattern at the sputtering end of this fourth-quarter rally: Early gains narrow through the day’s trading and occasionally turn to losses. The major indexes finished the week mixed.

Today was one of the year’s four “quadruple-witching days”, so called because four kinds of options contracts expire. Historically, the days have meant higher than usual volatility and volume as investors cash in or renew their contracts; in 10 of the last 13 such days, the Dow Jones industrial average has closed higher, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.