By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks ended mostly lower on Tuesday after a decline in a regional manufacturing gauge prompted concern, but the Dow industrials climbed to a record close.

Snapping a four-session winning streak, the S&P 500 index (SPX) fell 3.14 points, or 0.2%, to 1,692.39, with information technology leading losses and telecommunications leading gains among its 10 major sectors. The S&P 500 rose to its 23rd record close this year on Monday.

The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) lost 21.11 points, or 0.6%, to end at 3,579.27 on Tuesday.

After a 58-point climb to an intraday record of 15,604.22, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) ended up 22.19 points, or 0.1%, at 15,567.74, its 28th record close this year.

More than 620 million shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Composite volume topped 3 billion.

Wall Street had begun modestly higher as companies from DuPont (DD) to Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) beat earnings expectations.

Stocks relinquished much of their gains after the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond said manufacturing activity in the central Atlantic region declined in July, with a seasonally adjusted composite index of manufacturing activity down 18 points in July to a reading of -11. The Richmond Fed also said that activity in the service sector softened in July.

"While the Richmond manufacturing survey is never market moving itself, its weakness following the better New York and Philly reports points to a still mixed bag in manufacturing," emailed Peter Boockvar, chief market strategist at the Lindsey Group LLC.

United Technologies Corp. (UTX) paced gains for the Dow average after reporting quarterly earnings above Wall Street estimates.

United Technologies' share movement "alone is worth some 20-odd Dow Jones points," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. "The market is a bit overbought at this juncture. It charged to new highs in a basically straight line before running into a wall of mixed earnings," he added.

Dow component Travelers Cos. (TRV) fell 3.8% as rising interest rates weighed on its bond portfolio, with the company saying it would cut jobs and auto-insurance prices.

Shares of DuPont ended slightly lower after the chemical producer reported a drop in quarterly earnings and said it was considering a spinoff or potential sale of its performance-chemicals business.

"As I watch stock prices move up a lot faster than earnings, it causes me to be a lot more cautious," said Alan Skrainka, chief investment officer at Cornerstone Wealth Management in Des Peres, Mo.

"It's a wonderful time to rebalance portfolios; I think I'll feel pretty good about that come September. Unless things change dramatically, September is the month that we start tapering," said Skrainka, referring to potential reductions in the Federal Reserve's $85 billion in monthly bond purchases.

In the aerospace and defense sector, shares of Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) gained 2% after an earnings beat.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) climbed 2.9% after the biggest publicly traded copper producer reported second-quarter earnings that topped estimates.

Netflix Inc. (NFLX) dropped 4.5% a day after the online-entertainment service reported subscriber growth below some estimates in the second quarter.

CapitalSource Inc. (CSE) jumped 22% after PacWest Bancorp (PACW) said it would acquire the commercial lender for about $2.29 billion in cash and stock. Sourcefire Inc. (FIRE) shares rallied 28% after Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) agreed to buy the cybersecurity company in a deal worth about $2.7 billion.

Tech giant Apple (AAPL) will likely garner much of the attention on Tuesday evening after weak results from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Google Inc. (GOOG) last week. Apple will release quarterly earnings after the market close on Tuesday.

The dollar (DXY) declined against the currencies of U.S. trading partners and Treasury yields rose, with the 10-year yield (10_YEAR) rising two basis points to 2.50%.

Oil futures (CLU3) rose above $107 a barrel and gold fell 0.1% to $1,334.70 an ounce after an impressive run on Monday, when the August contract (GCQ3) posted the heftiest one-day rally in more than a year.

Short-covering likely factored into gold's bounce after prices fell more than 30% from late 2012, with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's pushback against monetary tightening a factor driving the action, wrote Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., in emailed commentary.

But the impact could be short-lived.

"Despite the market's recent misinterpretation of the Fed's tone regarding QE [quantitative easing] exit, genuine inflation concerns are nowhere on the horizon, neither is systemic risk -- two key variables that typically support sustained gold rallies. On the demand side, India has just placed yet more restrictions on gold imports," he wrote.

Tuesday's data calendar also had the Federal Housing Finance Agency's home-price index for May rising 0.7%.

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