Wall Street ends lower

Stocks closed lower for the second straight session today after the Dow Jones industrial average flirted briefly early in the day with its all-time high close.

After making an attempt earlier to reach for its record trading high 11,750.28 in January 2000, te Dow slipped 8.72, or 0.07%, to 11,670.35. Broader indexes were also lower.

Trading was volatile as some market players were out for the Yom Kippur holiday; traders said that may have weighed on stocks.

The markets mostly shrugged off the day’s economic data, which presented a mixed picture of the economy.

“There are a lot of crosscurrents between earnings, the overall condition of the economy and oil prices,” Jim Herrick, head of equity trading at Robert W. Baird & Co., said of the market’s pullback Monday.

Despite the Dow’s recent climb to near-record territory, Herrick believes the markets will stay tethered near current levels as investors wait for more economic data, such as the government’s employment report due Friday, as well as a read on corporate earnings and profit forecasts.

Jon Brorson, head of growth equities at Lehman Brothers Asset Management, points out that the start of a new quarter often brings activity from investors seeking to rebalance their portfolios, though he noted volume was light because of the holiday.

The Institute for Supply Management said the manufacturing sector grew at the slowest pace in more than a year in September amid weaker US auto sales and a cooling of the housing market.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said construction spending in August rose 0.3% after falling 1% in July. Also weighing in, the National Association of Retailers said pending home sales rose 4.3% in August.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 4.53, or 0.34%, to 1,331.59, and the Nasdaq composite index slid 20.83, or 0.92%, to 2,237.60.

The economic data follow the strongest quarter for the stock market in about a decade. Investors are eager to find out whether the Federal Reserve still sees inflation as a sizable threat. Stocks have risen since the central bank interrupted a two-year string of 17 straight rate hikes and last month left rates unchanged for a second straight time.