Stocks in New York pulled back yesterday as investors locked in some gains from Monday's rally, which lifted the Dow to its first record high since July.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 73.12 points - or by 0.78 per cent - to 9,301.15, giving back a third of Monday's 214-point gain.

Broader stock indicators also succumbed to a modest bout of profit-taking.

But the selling remained rather restrained compared with the tremendous gains of recent sessions.

While the economic backdrop has improved with three interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, the rebound has been so rapid and powerful that some analysts are worried that investors are again ignoring the global financial troubles that jolted the market in the summer.

Notably, the Commerce Department reported that the gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced within US borders, increased at a 3.9 per cent annual rate in the July-September quarter, up from an earlier estimate of 3.3 per cent. The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 5.22 to 1,182.99, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 11.53 to 1,965.89.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by an eight-to-seven margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,442 up, 1,653 down and 490 unchanged. Nasdaq losers led by a seven-to-five ratio.

NYSE volume totalled 763.84 million shares, almost even with Monday's large total of 764.44 million. The NYSE composite index fell 2.56 to 579.69, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 5.17 to 666.83.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 1.54 to 396.61.