With the Treasury bond market closed for the Columbus Day holiday and little economic or corporate news to guide them, stock market investors remained cautious ahead of the flood of third-quarter earnings, which begins Tuesday with Dow component Alcoa Inc.'s results. The third-quarter results being reported will reflect the difficult times some companies have faced - particularly in the financial and housing sectors - following upheaval in the credit markets and amid a souring of some home mortgages. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 14.23, or 0.10 percent, to 14,051.78. Broader stock indexes were mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.37, or 0.22 percent, to 1,554.22, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 3.19, or 0.11 percent, to 2,783.51. Trading was light, as many investors stayed on the sidelines for the holiday and ahead of the third-quarter earnings season. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 9 to 5 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 187.1 million shares. Last week, a sense that corporations are likely to bounce back from some of the concerns that upended credit markets last quarter drove stocks higher. The Dow and the S&P both rose to new record highs, so a slight pullback isn't unexpected. Light, sweet crude fell $1.49 to $78.73 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
