US stocks dipped on Thursday, with investors hesitant as Hurricane Rita neared energy facilities in the Gulf of Mexico three weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit.
Rita's potential for devastation unnerved investors about insurance shares, including American International Group Inc, a Dow component, down 1 percent at $58.76 on the New York Stock Exchange. But some investors bought shares of companies that some see benefiting from rebuilding after the storms, including Caterpillar Inc.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 3 points, or 0.03 percent, at 10,375. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 1.89 points, or 0.16 percent, at 1,208.31. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was down 5.21 points, or 0.25 percent, at 2,101.43.