American stocks slipped today as investors awaited the US Labor Department’s jobs report and reacted to Yahoo Inc.’s announcement of its biggest management shake-up in more than five years.

Microsoft Corp. said that the record antitrust fine levied against it in 2004 should be thrown out, or at least greatly reduced, because the punishment outweighed the infraction, the company’s lawyers said today.

Microsoft Corp. today complained that the European Commission had forced it to hand over trade secrets to rivals, effectively giving them a “free ride” on the work the software maker did to acquire new customers and develop new technologies.

US stocks fluctuated before closing slightly lower today after a Federal Reserve governor’s upbeat comments on inflation helped ease worries about a bleak forecast from Intel Corp. The major indexes finished mixed for the week.

Microsoft Corp filed a formal complaint with EU antitrust regulators today, alleging the European Commission withheld documents and secretly colluded with rival companies and an independent monitor shortly before the EU charged the Microsoft had not obeyed an earlier ruling.