Stock rally fizzles, indexes slip slightly

An early rally fizzled in late afternoon Tuesday, leaving stock indexes slightly lower at the closing bell.

At the close on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 5.4 points, less than 0.1 percent, at 17,875.4. The Dow had been up as much as 102 points earlier.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 4.3 points, about 0.2 percent, to 2,076.3. The Nasdaq composite gave up 7.1 points, about 0.1 percent, to 4,910.2.

Viacom fell 2 percent after the entertainment company announced layoffs and a big charge to earnings as part of a restructuring effort.

The price of U.S. benchmark crude oil rose about 3.5 percent to $53.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.