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New York - The S&P 500 snapped a four-day winning streak on Tuesday and pulled back from Monday's record closing high, while healthy earnings from United Technologies gave the Dow a slight lift.
Earnings, as a whole, though, were lukewarm and held back the broader market.
Technology shares weighed on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. Shares of Apple fell 1.7% to end at $418.99, ahead of the company's earnings after the closing bell.
Apple's stock shot up 5.1% in extended-hours trading after the tech bellwether reported slightly better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter revenue of $35.3bn on solid sales of its flagship iPhone.
During the regular session, the S&P info tech index slipped 0.5% to rank as the worst of the benchmark index's 10 industrial sectors. Six of the 10 S&P 500 industry sector indexes declined.
Stronger-than-expected earnings from United Technologies, the world's largest maker of elevators and air conditioners, drove the company's stock to an all-time intraday high of $105.63. The stock rose 3% to end at $105.12 and led the Dow industrials' advance after the company raised the low end of its 2013 earnings forecast.
Biotech shares also pulled down the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. The S&P biotech subindex fell 2.3% a day after hitting an all-time high.
Stocks traded in a narrow range throughout the session, with the benchmark S&P 500 moving just 7.65 points between a record intraday high of 1 698.78 and a session low of 1 691.13. The Dow's swing covered 60.16 points from its record intraday high of 15 604.22, reached shortly after the opening bell, and its session low of 15 544.06.
"The market doesn't have justification to back off from the highs, but doesn't have enough of a catalyst to move it significantly one way or another," said Art Hogan, managing director of Lazard Capital Markets in New York.
"There's no one company reporting that tips over the cart."
The S&P 500's decline on Tuesday was only the second down day for the benchmark index in the last 14. The S&P 500 has gained 18.7% so far this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 22.19 points to end at 15 567.74. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 3.14 points to 1 692.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 21.11 points to close at 3 579.27.
Shares of The Travelers Cos fell 3.8% to $82.21 after the company said it would cut jobs and reduce prices of auto insurance - steps investors viewed as an indication that rates had risen too far and competition was increasing. The company, a Dow component and the first major insurer to report results, is seen as a bellwether for the industry.
Of the 130 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far this season, 63.8% have beaten analysts' expectations, but 51.5% have fallen short of revenue forecasts.
Netflix shares dropped 4.5% to $250.26 a day after the movies and TV streaming service reported it had gained new subscribers in the second quarter. The number of new subscribers, though, was not enough to impress investors.
Elsewhere in the tech sector, Cisco Systems said it will buy software maker Sourcefire for about $2.7bn to increase its network security services. Sourcefire shares surged 27.8% to $75.49. In comparison, Cisco's stock fell 0.6% to $25.56.
Shares of Phillips 66 Partners surged 29.1% to close at $29.70 in their first day of trading. The initial public offering of 16.4 million shares was priced at $23 per share. The new publicly traded partnership has a contractual relationship with Phillips 66, whose shares rose 2.6% to $59.49.
Volume was below the daily average, with about 5.6 billion shares changing hands on US exchanges.
Advancers outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange by a ratio of 17 to 13. On the Nasdaq, 13 stocks fell for nearly every 12 that rose.
