NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A broad stock rally petered out by the close Tuesday, with blue chips clinging to gains and techs turning negative.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 16.04 to 10,483.07, Charts) rose less than 0.2 percent, but the 30-share index was up more than 100 points, or about 1 percent, earlier in the session.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 (down 0.25 to 1,197.26, Charts) index ended unchanged, after having been up as much as 0.9 percent earlier.

The Nasdaq composite (down 8.60 to 2,067.16, Charts) lost 0.4 percent, after having gained 0.8 percent earlier.

Stocks rallied through the early afternoon and blue chips managed to keep most of those gains until about 30 minutes before the close. The early advance had been supported by falling oil prices, lower Treasury bond yields, cost-cutting news from GM and a sense that Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's comments late Monday were reassuring.

But tech began to slide in midafternoon, with investors cashing out after several up weeks. That weakness ultimately weighed on the broader market, causing the blue chip averages to erase most of the earlier gains.

After the close, Texas Instruments (Research) boosted the high-end of its second-quarter earnings per share and revenue forecast, as part of its midquarter update. Shares rose around 2 percent in extended-hours trading.

On Wednesday, investors will be keeping an eye on the April wholesale inventories report. Inventories are expected to have risen 0.4 percent in the month, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com. Inventories rose 0.4 percent in March.

Greenspan, speaking via satellite to a monetary conference in China Monday night, again discussed the "conundrum" of unusually low long-term interest rates, saying he expects long rates to remain low even with short-term rates rising, and adding this doesn't necessarily indicate a slowing economy -- something typically associated with such an interest-rate picture.

That perspective kept the blue chips from falling as much as the techs, as did a positive response to GM, which announced 25,000 jobs cuts as part of a bid to cut costs.

Sliding oil prices also proved supportive. U.S. light crude for July delivery fell 73 cents to settle at $53.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The afternoon pullback was likely a function of normal profit taking after the strong run-up in the morning, said Tom Schrader, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Legg Mason.

As for why the Nasdaq was struggling more than the broader market, he said "the techs, and especially the chips, have really been outperforming the broader market, so I'm not surprised you're seeing some consolidation there."

He added that stocks are likely to continue to be choppy as investors wait for clearer signs from the Federal Reserve about whether the expected rate hike at the next meeting -- at the end of June -- is the last one for a while, or whether there is another one on tap.

In corporate news, General Motors said it plans to cut 25,000 jobs and close an unspecified number of plants in the United States in a bid to rejuvenate its struggling North American business. Shares of Ford Motor (up $0.10 to $10.06, Research) rose along with those of GM (up $0.31 to $30.73, Research).

A number of economically sensitive stocks rose, including home builders. That sent the Philadelphia Housing Sector (Charts) index up nearly 0.9 percent.

But a number of techs declined, with the chips and the Internet showing the biggest about face from the early afternoon.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor (down 4.76 to 427.52, Charts) index, or the SOX, fell 1.1 percent after rising 1.2 percent through the early afternoon.

The Goldman Sachs (Charts) Internet index fell 0.7 percent after rising around 1 percent earlier in the session.

Monsanto (up $2.83 to $61.63, Research), an agricultural products maker, jumped after boosting its current-quarter forecast and pledging $250 million to help get Solutia, its former chemicals unit, out of bankruptcy.

Dow component Procter & Gamble (up $0.14 to $55.45, Research) reaffirmed its fiscal fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2005 guidance late Monday, lifting shares a bit.

But retailer Sears Holdings (down $13.41 to $141.50, Research) sank after the company reported a loss in its first quarterly report since Kmart bought Sears, Roebuck & Co. to form the new company. Excluding charges, the company posted a profit.

Market breadth was mixed. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers nine to seven as 1.44 billion shares traded. On the Nasdaq, decliners narrowly edged advancers as 1.88 billion shares changed hands.

Treasury prices rose on Greenspan's comments, lowering the 10-year note yield to around 3.90 percent from 3.95 percent late Monday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

COMEX gold fell $1.70 to settle at $426.70 an ounce.