Wall Street broke a two-day slide today as investors cherry-picked insurance, technology and home-building stocks on bits of welcome news for those industries

Wall Street finished an erratic session mixed today with the Dow Jones industrials reaching a third straight record close despite concerns about corporate profits and the impact of falling oil prices.

Wall Street posted modest gains today as mixed economic news and a car bombing in Iraq revived investors’ caution following Monday’s big rally.

Investors sent shares higher on Wall Street today, amid relief that the US government is lowering the national terror alert level and heartened by reports that Iraq would destroy some missiles.