Wall Street stocks were mixed, with smaller-company shares outperforming the blue-chip sector in an unusually calm session after the turbulent swings of the past two weeks. The Dow Jones industrial average was up as much as 56 points during the session, but trailed lower into the close, falling 28.34 points to 7,859.57.
The weakness among blue-chips masked another strong day for smaller-company shares, weighing down several popular stock indexes even though advancing issues outnumbered decliners in the broad market.
NYSE volume totalled just 388.96 million shares, the first full session with a tally below 400 million since May.
The Standard and Poor's 500stock list fell 3.38 to 920.16, and the NYSE composite index fell 0.90 to 478.03.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 2.84 to 1,601.53, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 3.02 to 646.85. Both measures have a large constituency of smaller-company stocks. Likewise, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.36 to 418.09.
