NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A morning mega-rally turned into a small tech advance Monday as a broad run-up petered out by the close, with only the Nasdaq holding on to gains.

The Nasdaq composite (up 11.33 to 2,069.04, Charts) gained nearly 0.6 percent after having risen as much as 1.7 percent in the early afternoon.

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The Dow Jones industrial average (up 9.84 to 11,097.87, Charts) and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (up 1.47 to 1,268.21, Charts) index both ended just a bit better than unchanged. Both had gained nearly 1 percent earlier.

Stocks had rallied in the morning and through the early afternoon as investors welcomed news of a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and the impact it had on oil prices.

But market gains fizzled by the close, with investors finding little reason to hold on to such an advance ahead of inflation reports due later in the week.

Tuesday brings the July read on producer prices. PPI is expected to have risen 0.4 percent in the month, after rising 0.5 percent in June. The so-called core PPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is expected to have risen 0.2 percent, after rising 0.2 percent in the previous month.

Tuesday also brings the read on Aug. manufacturing in the NY area, as well as earnings reports from Home Depot (Charts), Wal-Mart Stores (Charts), Staples (Charts) and others.

After the close Monday, Dell said it was recalling more than 4 million notebook batteries because they can overheat and cause a fire hazard. Dell (Charts) shares were little changed in extended-hours trading.

A U.N.-negotiated cease-fire took effect Monday morning in the Middle East and seemed to be holding. That was a major relief for investors after weeks of intense fighting in the region.

The cease-fire also diminished worries that nearby oil-producing countries such as Syria and Iran would join the conflict, thereby driving up crude prices. As a result, energy prices slumped through the early afternoon.

Crude prices also declined in response to BP's announcement late Friday that it will be able to keep half the Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, oilfield operating while replacing corroded pipelines.

However, prices recovered some in the afternoon, and as they recovered, stocks gave back bigger gains.

U.S. light crude fell 82 cents to settle at $73.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. However, crude had fallen more sharply through the morning, briefly dipping as low as $72.60 a barrel.

The advance was "a combination of lower energy prices and some sense that we'll get relief on the geopolitical front," said William Hummer, principal at Wayne Hummer Investments.

However, the late-session turnaround reflected both the volatile nature of summer trading on Wall Street and the ongoing worries investors are having about the economy, interest rates and inflation.

Hummer said that while he thinks the market looks healthy heading into the fall, a substantial sell-off is possible, should the economic news suggest that the Federal Reserve needs to start raising rates again.

Last week, the central bank held a key short-term interest rate steady at 5.25 percent after lifting it 17 times in a row since June 2004.

The next Fed policy meeting isn't until Sept. 20, but investors will be looking at the inflation data closely over the next month to see if the Fed was right to bet that the slowing economy will take the edge off rising inflation.

Worries about this will be "ongoing for the market," said Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management.

That concern, combined with typical summer fluctuations, means the market is likely to be volatile through the fall, Ghriskey said.

Technology shares were the best performers of the session, with chips and computer hardware and software managing the biggest advance.

Intel (up $0.46 to $17.87, Charts) gained 2.6 percent. The stock trades on the Nasdaq and is also a Dow component and therefore has a big impact on the overall market.

Intel helped lift the Philadelphia Semiconductor (up 4.52 to 409.91, Charts) index, or the SOX, by 1.2 percent. The index had gained around 2.5 percent earlier in the session.

In addition to Intel, other Dow gainers included Hewlett-Packard (up $0.24 to $33.29, Charts), IBM (up $1.20 to $76.68, Charts) and General Electric (up $0.32 to $32.82, Charts).

Dow stock Honeywell (up $0.25 to $37.71, Charts) gained on news that it received a contract from Qatar Shell to supply systems for its Pearl gas-to-liquids production plant.

Dow decliners included economically sensitive issues such as Caterpillar (down $1.07 to $65.96, Charts) and Alcoa (down $0.34 to $27.93, Charts).

A broad swath of transportation stocks had risen in the morning, as such companies directly benefit from lower fuel costs.

However, airlines, railroads and truckers gave back bigger gains by the late afternoon, with the Dow Jones Transportation average (up 20.37 to 4,161.99, Charts) only up by 0.5 percent after having risen nearly 2 percent earlier.

Among other technology movers, Cisco Systems (up $0.55 to $20.09, Charts) added 2.8 percent on a bullish mention in Barron's. The financial weekly said Cisco should benefit from telecom companies needing to upgrade their networks to handle services such as video.

In other news, Microsoft (Charts) said it will introduce software that amateur gamers can use to create basic titles for its new Xbox 360 game console.

PepsiCo (Charts) announced that Chairman and CEO Steve Reinemund, who led the company past Coca-Cola in terms of market capitalization for the first time, will retire in March. Chief Financial Officer Indra Nooyi will assume the CEO job this October.

Pepsi shares added 1 percent.

Oil stocks slumped along with the price of the raw commodity. The Amex Oil (down 20.51 to 1,182.80, Charts) index lost 1.7 percent.

Market breadth was still positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers 6 to 5 on volume of 1.39 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers topped decliners by 8 to 7 on volume of 1.5 billion shares.

Treasury prices eased, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 4.99 percent from 4.96 percent late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The dollar was higher against the yen and the euro.

Gold prices slipped $5.10 to $639.30 an ounce.

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