NEW YORK, Oct 6 (AFP) - US stocks struggled for traction Wednesday as a series of profit warnings and another spurt in oil prices to record highs prompted investors to consolidate recent gains.
After minor swings in each direction, the Dow Jones Industrial Average drifted down 5.53 points (0.05 percent) to 10,172.15 at 1505 GMT.
The Nasdaq composite fell 5.41 points (0.28 percent) to 1,950.09, but the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index managed a gain of a fractional 0.24 point to 1,134.72.
The major indexes were sensitive to crude oil prices, which hit a new record of 51.80 dollars a barrel even after the Energy Department posted a rise in supplies.
"We'll probably see another day digesting some of the strength we saw last week and into Monday," said John Hughes, market analyst at Shields and Co.
"We're a little bit on the overbought side. You can blame oil, but stocks have rallied in the face of 50-dollar oil. The fact that it's at 51 dollars isn't that much more significant, because it's due to temporary conditions out of the Gulf which are going to force some supply issues for the near term."
Corporate news was also impacting the market, with Merck sharply lower after a report quoted a Food and Drug Administration study showing its recently withdrawn Vioxx arthritis drug may have been behind several thousand heart attacks.
Profit warnings from Knight Trading, Delphi and Credence Systems were also weighing on the market.
Merck shares traded down 69 cents, or two percent, to 32.74, several days after the pharmaceutical giant withdrew Vioxx and saw its shares clobbered. Shares of rival Pfizer fell 15 cents to 31.14.
Knight dipped a penny to 9.58 after the Wall Street trading firm cited "persistent lackluster market conditions" for operating losses in its equity markets and asset management businesses.
Auto parts maker Delphi Corp slumped 39 cents to 8.92 after the company, which was spun off from General Motors in 1999, said it expects to report a net loss between 113 million and 120 million dollars, wider than its previous loss targets.
Credence Systems tumbled 59 cents to 7.19 after the chip equipment maker projected a loss for the fourth quarter compared with a prior forecast of a profit.
Shares of Chiron Corp dipped 1.12 to 36.86, extending a 16 percent decline in the prior session, sparked by news it would not be able to release any of its Fluvirin flu vaccine this year.
Computer Associates rallied 59 cents to 27.98 after announcing a deal to acquire Web security firm Netegrity, which surged 2.73, or 35 percent, to 10.48.
Bonds slipped, with the yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond at 4.193 percent from 4.173 percent Tuesday and that on the 30-year bond at 4.949 percent from 4.928 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.