Dow eases as rally runs out of steam

NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks pulled back Monday as traders retreated from a rally that brought indexes to their highest levels since the peak of the financial crisis in September 2008.

Gold crossed $1,400 an ounce to another record on Monday as traders looked for safe places to park money.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 37.24, or 0.3 percent, to close at 11,406.84. It surged 2.9 percent last week after the Federal Reserved announced a $600-billion stimulus package for the US economy.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 index fell 2.60, or 0.2 percent, to 1,223.25.

The Nasdaq composite index continued to outperform other market measures, as it has done all year, edging up 1.07, or 0.04 percent, to 2,580.05. The technology-focused index is up 13.7 percent for the year, compared to a 9.4-percent gain for the Dow and a 9.7-percent gain for the S&P 500.

Financial companies were down the most among the 10 industry groups that make up the S&P 500 index. Technology, energy and materials companies were the only groups in the index to show meager gains.

“Today is shaping up to be a modest sell-off and that’s to be expected,” said Barnaby Levin, a managing director at HighTower Advisors.

Stocks have risen in recent weeks on better-than-expected corporate earnings reports and the introduction of a bond-buying program by the Federal Reserve that is intended to stimulate the economy by driving interest rates lower and encouraging spending.

The dollar rose 0.5 percent against a broad basket of currencies. That’s a negative for big US companies like Caterpillar Inc. that do a lot of business overseas, since a stronger dollar makes their products more expensive in other countries. Caterpillar was off 0.5 percent, and Boeing Co., another big exporter, was off 1.5 percent, putting it in a tie with Travelers Cos. for biggest laggard among the 30 companies that make up the Dow.

Despite weakness in other financial stocks, shares of Bank of America Corp. rose 1.9 percent to make it the best performing company among the Dow 30, followed by Hewlett Packard Co. and Cisco Systems Inc.