NEW YORK — Stocks ended a month-long rally on a weak note but still chalked up the best September in 71 years.
Indexes rose sharply at the open Thursday after some better news on the economy. But they stumbled at midmorning and stayed lower the rest of the day as traders pulled out profits after a spectacular September run for the market. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 47 points, having been up as much as 113 earlier in the day.
The Dow gained 7.7 percent in the month, making it the strongest September since 1939, at the dawn of World War II. However, that run-up followed a dismal August, and the Dow is up only 3.5 percent for the year and is 3.7 percent below its closing high for 2010 reached April 26.
Technology shares, which have been among the best performers in the month, led Thursday’s pullback. Major technology companies such as Apple, Dell and Google were down about 1 percent.
“You can’t underestimate people taking profits,” said T.C. Robillard Jr., a managing director at investment bank Signal Hill. Robillard said that like most reports throughout the month, Thursday’s batch of data only confirmed that the economy is growing slowly.
Major indexes surged all month on signs of incremental improvement in the economy, which allayed worries that the country would fall back into recession.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 47.23, or 0.4 percent, to 10,788.05.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 3.53, or 0.3 percent, to 1,141.20, while the Nasdaq composite fell 7.94, or 0.3 percent, to 2,368.62.
Traders initially were upbeat Thursday after a reading on regional manufacturing in the Chicago area jumped in September. Economists had expected the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index to fall slightly.
That regional manufacturing report bodes well heading into today’s monthly report on national manufacturing activity from the Institute for Supply Management.
Also, the Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell more than economists had predicted.
