Stocks fall as commodity, tech stocks retreat

NEW YORK -- Some of the market's star players are taking a break.

Commodity and technology stocks are giving up some of their recent gains and dragging the overall market lower Friday.

A surge in basic materials and tech shares has helped lift the Standard & Poor's index 39 percent from a 12-year low in early March.

With little news to go on, traders are questioning what might fuel a further advance. Some fear stocks are likely to give back a chunk of their advance until the economy shows more signs of recovery.

Joe Clark, managing partner of Financial Enhancement Group, said investors have absorbed all the good news possible to push stocks higher. But he said traders are growing accustomed to the flow of upbeat news about the economy and will need more to push the rally any further.

"The sponge seems to be full," he said.

In midafternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 9.22, or 0.1 percent, to 8,761.70. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.45, or 0.4 percent, to 941.44, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 18.71, or 1 percent, to 1,843.66.

A computer glitch briefly halted trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for more than 200 stocks but has been resolved, the exchange said.

The disruption hit 242 stocks, including American Express Co., General Electric Co., Merck & Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp., but they continued to be traded electronically without disruption. About 3,100 stocks are traded at the NYSE.

Wall Street has shown little movement this week as investors have become concerned that rising interest rates and weakening demand for government debt could derail a potential recovery in the economy. If Washington has to raise rates to attract buyers, that could hurt the economy by boosting borrowing costs for consumers.

But Thursday's bond auction results helped eased some of those concerns as demand for the debt appeared strong.

Bond prices mostly rose Friday, pushing yields down. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, a widely used benchmark for mortgages and other loans, fell to 3.78 percent from 3.86 percent late Thursday.

The dollar rose against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Rick Bensignor, chief market strategist at Execution LLC, said the market likely would need big news such as a further stabilization in banks to push higher. Otherwise, some gains could come as portfolio managers worried about falling behind the major indexes are forced to buy in. But he expects the market will give back some of its gains because it has risen so far so fast.

"Bulls think this is nothing more than a resting stop," he said. "Right now clearly the tug of war remains in place."

About three stocks fell for every two that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 478.3 million shares, compared to 729 million traded at the same point Thursday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 3.84, or 0.7 percent, to 522.24.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.6 percent. Asian markets were buoyed by reports that retail sales and industrial output grew strongly in China in May.

Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.5 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.7 percent, and France's CAC-40 slid 0.3 percent.