Dow dips after record

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Dow slipped Wednesday, one session after hitting an all-time high, but the Nasdaq managed to rise, ending at its highest level in more than six years.

The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts) lost 0.5 percent, according to early tallies. The broader S&P 500 (Charts) index was barely changed after ending the previous session at a record.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite (Charts) added 0.2 percent, ending the session at a fresh 6-1/2 year high.

Alcoa's earnings miss and profit warnings from Valero and Chevron set an early negative tone. A setback for Boeing in delivering its 787 Dreamliner planes added to the session's weakness, as did news that auto workers went on strike against Chrysler.

But technology managed a late-session advance, giving the Nasdaq composite a boost.

Here's a look at what was moving near the close.

The Dow had slipped throughout the morning on Alcoa, and profit warnings in the oil sector, but it fell to session lows after Boeing (Charts, Fortune 500) said that it was delaying the delivery of its first 787 Dreamliner planes by six months, due to assembly problems.

Boeing said the delay won't hit 2007 and 2008 earnings, but investors sent the stock lower anyway.

Other big blue chip decliners included AIG (Charts, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (Charts, Fortune 500), Citigroup (Charts, Fortune 500) and Honeywell (Charts, Fortune 500).

However, the day's retreat was pretty moderate considering the recent run up, said Joseph Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading.

"We've had a really good run, so it's not surprising to see a bit of a selloff here," he said.

Stocks rallied Tuesday as investors breathed a sigh of relief that the minutes from the last Fed meeting supported hopes for another interest rate cut by the end of the year.

But that euphoria didn't extend to Wednesday's session, particularly after a sluggish start to the third-quarter earnings reporting period.

As is traditional, Dow component Alcoa (Charts, Fortune 500) unofficially began the reporting period when it released results late Tuesday. The aluminum maker said it earned 64 cents per share, up from 62 cents a year earlier and 2 cents short of forecasts. Revenue fell from a year ago, but met forecasts.

Alcoa shares fell 2.5 percent Wednesday.

Lower gas prices in the quarter dragged on oil services firms, with both Valero Energy (Charts, Fortune 500) and Chevron (Charts, Fortune 500) warning that quarterly results will be hurt because the companies earned less from the refineries that fuel gas pumps.

Qwest Communications (Charts, Fortune 500) fell 3 percent in active New York Stock Exchange trading after UBS downgraded the telecom to "neutral" from "buy," Briefing.com reported.

On the upside, Costco (Charts, Fortune 500) reported higher quarterly earnings that topped estimates and said September sales at stores open for a year or more rose more than expected.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners by a narrow margin on volume of 1.16 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners beat advancers 8 to 7 on volume of 1.96 billion shares.

In economic news, a government report showed that August wholesale inventories rose a smaller-than-expected 0.1 percent after rising 0.2 percent in the previous month.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.63 percent from 4.64 percent late Tuesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

COMEX gold for December rose $2.90 to settle at $746 an ounce.

U.S. light crude oil for November delivery rose $1.04 to settle at $81.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.