NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks turned lower late Thursday afternoon, again giving up a recovery attempt, near the end of an extremely choppy day on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 61.07 to 11,345.13, Charts) lost about 0.5 percent with around 30 minutes left in the session. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 (down 4.18 to 1,296.08, Charts) index lost around 0.3 percent. The Nasdaq composite (down 7.10 to 2,160.74, Charts) lost 0.3 percent too.

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The major gauges swayed throughout the session, alternately sliding and attempting to stabilize with investors caught between wanting to retreat and wanting to build on the strong August advance. The tech-heavy Nasdaq briefly turned higher in the mid-afternoon, but the advance was short lived.

Stocks slumped Wednesday after a surprise jump in unit labor costs in the day's second-quarter productivity report sparked worries about wage inflation.

Such worries remained in place Thursday, particularly after afternoon comments from San Francisco Federal Reserve President Janet Yellen, who suggested that the Fed may need to raise rates again to combat inflation.

Additionally, a pair of home building companies issued profit warnings, reflecting the cooling in the housing market and the broader slowdown in GDP growth.

Both KB Home (down $0.12 to $40.27, Charts) and Beazer Homes (down $0.93 to $37.44, Charts) warned about their fiscal-year results, sending shares lower.

Home builder Hovnanian (up $1.18 to $26.65, Charts) also reported that fiscal third-quarter profit fell, however, the results topped forecasts and the stock rallied.

In other news, a pair of tech stocks also issued profit warnings. Palm (down $1.18 to $14.35, Charts) said that revenue in its just-completed quarter will miss previous forecasts, due to lower shipments of its Treo smart phone.

ATI Technologies (down $0.04 to $21.36, Charts), a graphics chipmaker, warned that revenue in its just-completed fiscal fourth-quarter will miss forecasts, due to lower sales of its chipsets for Intel (down $0.07 to $19.24, Charts) processors. The company is being bought by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices (up $0.06 to $24.59, Charts).

Other tech stocks managed gains, helping protect the Nasdaq from losses as steep as the blue-chip averages.

Apple Computer (up $2.95 to $72.98, Charts) rose more than 3 percent after brokerage UBS raised its 12-month price target on the company to $92 from $80, according to Reuters.

Oracle (up $0.42 to $16.04, Charts) and SanDisk (up $0.52 to $55.23, Charts) climbed too.

Meanwhile, Dow component Hewlett-Packard (down $0.39 to $35.45, Charts) inched lower on news that California's attorney general's office is investigating the legality of how the company traced the phone records of its board of directors.

Other Dow 30 decliners included economically-sensitive issues such as Boeing (down $1.47 to $72.97, Charts), Caterpillar (down $1.18 to $67.95, Charts), DuPont (down $0.43 to $39.71, Charts) and Honeywell (down $0.48 to $38.32, Charts).

A big retraction in gold and silver prices sent the underlying stocks tumbling.

The Amex Gold Bugs (down $13.58 to $348.59, Charts) index lost 3.3 percent and the iShares Silver Trust (down $3.44 to $126.44, Charts) index lost 2.6 percent.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers topped winners nearly 2 to 1 on volume of 1.20 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers by three to two on volume of 1.59 billion shares.

Investors also took in a morning read on wholesale inventories. Inventories rose 0.8 percent in July, the same as they did in June. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought they'd rise 0.7 percent.

U.S. light crude oil for October delivery fell 18 cents to $67.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price fell after the release of the weekly oil inventory report, which showed a surprise build in gasoline supplies and a bigger-than-expected jump in distillates.

Treasury prices were barely higher, after tumbling for several sessions. The yield on the 10-year note stood at about 4.79 percent, little changed from where it stood late Wednesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar rose versus the euro and inched lower versus the yen.

COMEX gold for December delivery fell $16 to $625.80 an ounce.

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