Stocks mostly were slightly lower Tuesday as weakness in the financial sector and disappointment about Johnson & Johnson's quarterly results halted the Dow industrials' attempt to hit 10,000. Stocks fell at the opening of the session as traders prepared for the first big wave of quarterly results this week. Stocks briefly turned higher in the late morning before falling again. The U.S. dollar fell versus the euro and the yen, helping to push dollar-traded commodity prices higher. Light sweet crude oil for November delivery rose 88 cents to $74.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for December delivery rose $7.50 to $1,065 an ounce, another record high. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 14.74, or 0.15 percent, to 9,871.06. Johnson & Johnson reported higher quarterly profits but weaker quarterly revenue. Investors focused on the negative news, sending shares of the diversified healthcare company down 2.5 percent. Financial components Travelers, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Bank of America fell, while Home Depot, Chevron, DuPont, and Wal-Mart Stores gained. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.01, or 0.3 percent, to 1,073.18. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index was virtually unchanged, rising 0.75 to 2,139.89. Cisco Systems said it is buying wireless network equipment maker Starent for $2.9 billion, and its shares were little changed. The New York Stock Exchange composite index fell 19.29 to 7,031.87. The American Stock Exchange composite index rose 7.68 to 1,821.65. And the Russell 2000 index fell 2.11 to 611.70.
