US blue chip stocks fell on Tuesday, led lower by General Motors Corp amid signs US carmakers were losing ground to Japanese rivals, but strong profits at investment bank Morgan Stanley boosted financial shares.
Stocks have slowed their gains this month after a six-week-long rally. The Dow Jones industrial average fell for a fourth straight day on Tuesday, its longest string of losses since October.
GM fell 5.7 percent to $19.85 after hitting an 18-year low. Toyota Motor Corp unveiled plans to increase production for 2006, suggesting it could overtake GM as the world's largest automaker.
Also, J.D. Power and Associates said the Big Three US automakers continued to lose market share to Japanese rivals in December.
"The problem with GM is that once it goes down, it drags many other companies with it," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategists at Miller Tabak & Co in New York.
A strike by mass transit workers in New York City had little impact on trading volume.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 30.98 points, or 0.29 percent, at 10,805.55. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.30 point, or 0.02 percent, at 1,259.62. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.32 points, or 0.01 percent, at 2,222.42.
"Investors may not be willing to go way too long on stocks as the new year starts," said Boockvar. "At the same time, there are so many hedge funds in this market that they may be selling some stocks to cash in gains after November's rally." Morgan Stanley posted quarterly profit that topped Wall Street expectations, pushing the investment bank's shares up 1.8 percent to $57.71. Gains in Morgan Stanley helped lift other financial stocks. Shares of American Express Co, a Dow component, rose almost 1 percent to $51.75 and were among the blue chip average's biggest boosters.
In economic news, the US producer price index showed low inflation at the wholesale level, easing worries about the need for further interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve, analysts said.
PPI fell a larger-than-expected 0.7 percent in November, due mostly to a drop in energy prices. It was the biggest fall by the index in 2-1/2 years. Excluding food and energy, "core" PPI rose just 0.1 percent.
Other advancing stocks included Boeing Co, whose shares rose 1.1 percent to $70.74. A Hong Kong airline said it plans to buy as many as 40 planes over the next five years. Pharmaceutical stocks slipped following strong gains on Monday. Pfizer Inc slid 1.3 percent to $24 and topped the most active list on the NYSE, a day after a court ruling pushed the stock up almost 8 percent.
Trading was active on the NYSE, with about 1.47 billion shares changing hands, above last year's daily average of 1.46 billion, while on Nasdaq about 1.74 billion shares traded, below last year's daily average of 1.81 billion.
Declining and advancing stocks on the NYSE were about even, while on Nasdaq declining stocks beat advancers by about 8 to 7.
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