NEW YORK, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The rally that briefly pushed the Nasdaq composite past 2,000 and the Dow industrials over 9,900 fizzled Wednesday by the closing bell.
The Dow ended up 19.78 points, or 0.2 percent, at 9,873.42 on volume of 1.42 billion, while the Nasdaq composite index lost 19.82, or 1 percent, to 1,960.25, and Standard & Poor's 500 stock index moved back 1.89, or 0.18 percent, to 1,064.73, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In Europe stocks rose with the FTSE-100 index rising 13.10, or 0.3 percent, to 4,392, while Asian equities fell with Japan's Nikkei 225 index falling 83.76, or 0.8 percent, to 10,326.39.
General Motors and Merck kept the blue chips in the green for the seventh day in eight. Meanwhile, tech stocks reached heights not seen since January 2002 earlier in the session.
The euro rose slightly to $1.2106 from Tuesday's $1.2075. Against Japan's yen, the U.S. dollar fell to 108.264, down from 108.70.
