NEW YORK (AP):

Wall Street broke a four-day advance yes-terday as a rally in financial stocks fizzled and dragged the market lower.

Analysts said the pullback didn't necessarily signal that traders were reconsidering their newfound optimism about financial stocks, a main driver behind the week's advance.

In fact, some viewed the measured easing in stocks as reassuring following the 10-per cent surge in major indicators last week, which is more than the market has moved in some years.

"This is healthy," said Dave Rovelli, managing director of trading at brokerage Canaccord Adams in New York. "The best thing for this market is that we don't go up aggressively. A steady rise of a few up days then a down day would be a lot better than 1,000 points up."

The Dow slipped 7.01, or 0.1 per cent, to 7,216.97. The blue chips rose as much as 169 points during the session.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.66, or 0.4 per cent, to 753.89, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 27.48, or 1.9 per cent, to 1,404.02.

More rose than fell

More stocks rose than fell even as the major indicators lost ground. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a moderate 1.9 billion shares.

Stocks had been higher for much of the session as investors snapped up hard-hit financial shares. Stocks started the day higher after comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and news from a British bank eased some worries about the overall economy and the prospects for financial companies struggling with bad debt.